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diff --git a/17545.txt b/17545.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..420721d --- /dev/null +++ b/17545.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6280 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Princess, by Mary Greenway McClelland + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Princess + + +Author: Mary Greenway McClelland + + + +Release Date: January 18, 2006 [eBook #17545] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +American Authors' Series, No. 17. + +PRINCESS + +by + +M. G. McCLELLAND + +Author of "Oblivion," "Jean Monteith," "Eleanor Gwynn," Etc. + + + + + + + +New York: +United States Book Company +Successors to +John W. Lovell Company +150 Worth St., Cor Mission Place +Copyright, 1886, +by +Henry Holt & Co. + + + + + +With love and admiration, + +I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend, + + +THOMAS ALEXANDER SEDDON. + + + + +PRINCESS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +When the idea of a removal to Virginia was first mooted in the family +of General Percival Smith, ex-Brigadier in the United States service, +it was received with consternation and a perfect storm of disapproval. +The young ladies, Norma and Blanche, rose as one woman--loud in +denunciation, vehement in protest--fell upon the scheme, and verbally +sought to annihilate it. The country! A farm!! The South!!! The +idea was untenable, monstrous. Before their outraged vision floated +pictures whereof the foreground was hideous with cows, and snakes, and +beetles; the middle distance lurid with discomfort, corn-bread, and +tri-weekly mails; the background lowering with solitude, ennui, and +colored servants. + +Rusticity, nature, sylvan solitudes, and all that, were exquisite bound +in Russia, with gold lettering and tinted leaves; wonderfully alluring +viewed at leisure with the gallery to one's self, and the light at the +proper angle, charmingly attractive behind the footlights, but in +reality!--to the feeling of these young ladies it could be best +appreciated by those who had been born to it. In their opinion, they, +themselves, had been born to something vastly superior, so they +rebelled and made themselves disagreeable; hoping to mitigate the gloom +of the future by intensifying that of the present. + +Their mother, whose heart yearned over her offspring, essayed to +comfort them, casting daily and hourly the bread of suggestion and +anticipation on the unthankful waters, whence it invariably returned to +her sodden with repinings. The young ladies set their grievances up on +high and bowed the knee; they were not going to be comforted, nor +pleased, nor hopeful, not they. The scheme was abominable, and no +aspect in which it could be presented rendered its abomination less; +they were hopeless, and helpless, and oppressed, and there was the end +of it. + +Poor Mrs. Smith wished it might be the end, or anywhere near the end; +for the soul within her was "vexed with strife and broken in pieces +with words." The general could--and did--escape the rhetorical +consequences of his unpopular measure, but his wife could not: no club +afforded her its welcome refuge, no "down town" offered her sanctuary. +She was obliged to stay at home and endure it all. Norma's sulks, +Blanche's tears, the rapture of the boys--hungering for novelty as boys +only can hunger--the useless and trivial suggestions of friends, the +minor arrangements for the move, the decision on domestic questions +present and to come, the questions, answers, futile conjectures, all +formed a murk through which she labored, striving to please her husband +and her children, to uphold authority, quell mutiny, soothe murmurs, +and sympathize with enthusiasm; with a tact which shamed diplomacy, and +a patience worthy of an evangelist. + +After the indulgent American custom, she earnestly desired to please +_all_ of her children. In her own thoughts she existed only for them, +to minister to their happiness; even her husband was, unconsciously to +her, quite of secondary importance, his strongest present claim to +consideration lying in his paternity. Had it been possible, she would +have raised her tent, and planted her fig tree in the spot preferred by +each one of her children, but as that was out of the question, in the +mother's mind of course her sons came first. And this preference must +be indulged the more particularly that Warner--the elder of her two +boys, her idol and her grief--was slowly, well-nigh imperceptibly, but +none the less surely, drifting away from her. A boyish imprudence, a +cold, over-exertion, the old story which is so familiar, so hopeless, +so endless in its repetition and its pathos. When interests were +diverse, the healthy, blooming daughters could hope to make little +headway against the invalid son. _They_ had all the sunny hours of +many long years before them; he perhaps only the hurrying moments of +one. + +For Warner a change was imperative--so imperative that even the +rebellious girls were fain to admit its necessity. His condition +required a gentler, kindlier atmosphere than that of New York. The +poor diseased lungs craved the elixir of pure air; panted for the +invigoration of breezes freshly oxygenized by field and forest, and +labored exhaustedly in the languid devitalized breath of a city. The +medical fraternity copiously consulted, recognized their impotence, but +refrained from stating it; and availed themselves of their power of +reference to the loftier physician--the boy must be healed, if he was +to be healed, by nature. The country, pure air, pure milk, tender +care; these were his only hope. + +General Smith was a man trained by military discipline to be instant in +decision and prompt in action. As soon as the doctors informed him +that his son's case required--not wanderings--but a steady residence in +a climate bracing, as well as mild, where the comforts of home could +supplement the healing of nature, he set himself at once to discover a +place which would fill all the requirements. To the old soldier, New +England born and Michigan bred, Virginia appeared a land of sun and +flowers, a country well-nigh tropical in the softness of its climate, +and the fervor of its heat. The doctors recommended Florida, or South +Carolina, as in duty bound, and to the suggestion of Virginia yielded +only a dubious consent; it was very far _north_, they said, but still +it might do. To the general, it seemed very far _south_, and he was +certain it would do. + +In the old time, he remembered, when he was in lower Virginia with +McClellan, he had reveled in the softness, the delight of that, to him, +marvelous climate. He had found the nights so sweet; the air, +vitalized with the breath of old ocean, so invigorating, the heat at +noonday so dry, and the coolness at evening so refreshing. There were +pines, too; old fields of low scrub, and some forests of the nobler +sort; that would be the thing for Warner. He remembered how, as he sat +in the tent door, the breeze scented with resinous odors used to come +to him, and how, strong man though he was, he had felt as he drew it +into his lungs that it did him good. + +In those old campaigning days, the fancy had been born in him that some +time in the future he would like to return and make his home here, +where "amorous ocean wooed a gracious land"--that when his fighting +days were over, and the retired list lengthened by his name, it would +be a pleasant thing to have his final bivouac among the gallant foes +who had won his admiration by their dauntless manner of giving and +taking blows. + +The exigencies and absorptions of military life, in time, dimmed the +fancy, but it never altogether vanished. Out on the plains with +Custer, away in the mountains and the Indian country, vegetating in the +dullness of frontier posts, amid the bustle, the luxury and excitement +of city life, the fancy would return; the memory of those soft starlit +Virginia evenings would infold him with a subtle spell. In thought he +would again sit smoking in the tent door, the gray shadows stealing out +from their covert in the woods, reconnoitering all the country ere they +swept down and took possession, in the name of their queen--the night. +The air would grow cool with the fragrant breath of the ocean and the +pines; whip-poor-wills would chant in the tree tops, and partridges +sound their blithe note away in the fields. It was not wonderful that +when the necessity of securing a country home arose, the fancy should +resume its sway, and that a meditated flitting southward should suggest +Virginia as its goal. + +The idea that any portion of his family would be displeased by the +realization of his fancy, or feel themselves aggrieved by his +arrangements, never entered into the veteran's calculations; he +returned from the South with his purchase made, and his mind filled +with anticipations of the joy the unlading of this precious honey would +occasion in the domestic hive, and when he was met by the angry buzz of +discontent instead of the gentle hum of applause, his surprise was +great, and his indignation unbounded. + +"What the devil are they grumbling about?" he demanded of his wife. +"Shirley's a fine plantation. The water is good, the air superb; there +are excellent gardens and first-rate oyster beds. The house is +old-fashioned, but it's comfortable, and a little money will make it +more so. What's the matter with them?" + +"The girls are young, Percival," explained the mother, putting in a +plea for her rebels. "They are used to society and admiration. They +don't take interest in gardens and oyster beds yet; they like variety +and excitement. The country is very dull." + +"Not at all dull," contradicted the general. "You talk as if I were +requiring you all to Selkirk on a ten acre island, instead of going to +one of the pleasantest and most populous counties in the oldest state +in the Union. Mr. Byrd, the former owner of Shirley, told me that the +neighborhood was very thickly settled and sociable. I counted five +gentlemen's houses in sight myself. Southerners, as a rule, are great +visitors, and if the girls are lonely it will be their own fault. +They'll have as much boating and dancing and tom-foolery as is good for +them." + +"Are there any young men?" demanded Mrs. Smith, who recognized the +necessity of an infusion of the stronger element to impart to social +joys body and flavor. + +"Yes, I guess so," replied her husband indifferently, masculinity from +over-association having palled on him; "there's always men about +everywhere, except back in the home villages in Maine--they're scarce +enough _there_, the Lord knows! I saw a good many about in the little +village near Shirley--Wintergreen, they call it. One young fellow +attracted my attention particularly; he was sitting on a tobacco +hogshead, down on the wharf, superintending some negroes load a wagon, +and I couldn't get it out of my head that I'd seen his face before. He +was tall, and fair, and had lost an arm. I must have met him during +the war, I think, although I'll be hanged if I can place him." + +Mrs. Smith looked interested. "Perhaps you formerly knew him," she +remarked, cheerfully; "it's a pity your memory is so bad. Why didn't +you inquire his name of some one, that might have helped you to place +him?" + +"My memory is excellent," retorted the general, shortly; for a man must +resent such an insinuation even from the wife of his bosom. "I've +always been remarkable for an unusually strong and retentive memory, as +you know very well--but it isn't superhuman. At the lowest +computation, I guess I've seen about a million men's faces in the +course of my life, and it's ridiculous to expect me to have 'em all +sorted out, and ticketed in my mind like a picture catalogue. My +memory is very fine." + +Mrs. Smith recanted pleasantly. Her husband's memory _was_ good, for +his age, she was willing to admit, but it was not flawless. About this +young man, now, it seemed to her that if she could remember him at all, +she could remember all about him. These hitches in recollection were +provoking. It would have been nice for the girls to find a young man +ready to their hands, bound to courtesy by previous acquaintance with +their father. + +She regretted that her husband should fail to recall, and had neglected +to inquire, the name of this interesting person; but the knowledge that +he was _there_, and others besides him, ameliorated the rigor of the +situation. + +Mrs. Smith did not care for the south or southern people; their +thoughts were not her thoughts, nor their ways, her ways. In her +ignorance, she classed them low in the scale of civilization, deeming +them an unprofitable race, whose days were given over to sloth, and +their nights to armed and malignant prowling. For the colored people +of the censured states, she had a profound and far-off sympathy, +viewing them from an unreal and romantic standpoint. This tender +attitude was mental; physically she shrank from them with disgust, and +it was not the least of the crosses entailed by a residence in the +south that she would be obliged to endure colored servants. + +But all this was trifling and unimportant in comparison with the main +issue, Warner's health. To secure the shadow of hope for her boy, Mrs. +Smith decided that any thing short of cannibalism in her future +surroundings would be endurable. + +The information gleaned from her husband was faithfully repeated by +Mrs. Smith to her daughters, with some innocent exaggeration and +unconscious embellishment. She always wanted to make things pleasant +for the children. + +Blanche looked up from her crewel sun-flowers with reviving interest, +but Norma walked over to the window, and stood drumming on the panes, +and regarding the passers with a lowering brow. + +"I wonder what Nesbit Thorne will think of it all?" she remarked, after +an interval of silence, giving voice to the inwardness of her +discontent. + +"He'll _hate_ it!" spoke Blanche, with conviction; "he'll abhor it, +just as we do. I know he will." Blanche always followed her sister's +lead, and when Norma was cross considered it her duty to be tearful. +She was only disagreeable now because Norma was. + +Percival, the youngest of the family, a spoiled and lively lad of +twelve, to whom the prospect of change was rapture, took up the last +remark indignantly. + +"Nesbit won't do anything of the kind," quoth he. "Nesbit isn't a +spoiled, airified idiot of a girl. He's got sense enough to appreciate +hunting and fishing and the things that are of importance to _men_. I +guess he'll want to come to Shirley this autumn for his shooting, +instead of going down to North Carolina." Norma stopped her tattoo and +turned her head slightly; the boy, observing that he had scored a +point, proceeded: "Just the minute he gets back from Montana, I'm going +to tell him all about Shirley and beg him to come. And if he does, I'm +going gunning with him every day, and make him teach me how to +shoot--see if I don't," regarding his mother from under his tawny brows +threateningly. Percival's nature was adventurous and unruly: he had +red hair. + +"Nesbit got back last night," announced Warner from his sofa beside the +other window. "I saw him pass the house this morning. There he is +now, coming up the street. If his opinion is a matter of such +importance, you can call him over and get it. I don't see that it +makes any difference what he thinks, myself." The latter part of the +sentence was muttered in an unheeded undertone. + +Norma tapped sharply on the glass, and beckoned to a gentleman on the +opposite pavement, her brow clearing. He nodded gayly in response, and +crossing, in obedience to her summons, entered the house familiarly +without ringing the bell. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +All turned expectantly toward the door, pausing in their several +occupations; even Warner's eyes were raised from his book, although his +attention was involuntary and grudging. The attitude of the little +circle attested the influence which the coming man wielded over every +member of it; an influence which extended insensibly to every one with +whom Nesbit Thorne's association was intimate. He was Mrs. Smith's +nephew, and much in the habit, whenever he was in New York, of making +her house his home--having none now of his own. + +He was a slender, dark man, with magnificent dark eyes, which had a +power of expression so enthralling as to disarm, or defy, criticism of +the rest of his face. Not one man in fifty could tell whether Nesbit +Thorne was handsome, or the reverse--and for women--ah, well! they knew +best what they thought. + +In his air, his carriage, his expression, was that which never fails to +attract and hold attention--force, vitality, individuality. He was +small, but tall men never dwarfed him; plain, but the world--his +world--turned from handsomer men with indifference, to heap +consideration upon him. To borrow the forceful vernacular of the +street, there was "something in him." There was no possibility of +viewing either him or his actions with indifference; of merging him in, +and numbering him with, the crowd. + +There are men whose lives are intaglios, cut by the chisel of destiny +deep into the sard of their generations; every line and curve and +faintest tracing pregnant with interest, suggestion, and emotion. Men +who are loved and hated, feared, adored and loathed with an intensity +that their commonplace fellows are incapable of evoking. They are +loadstones which attract events; whirlpools which draw to themselves +excitement, emotion, and vast store of sympathy. + +Some years previous to the opening of this story, Nesbit Thorne, then a +brilliant recent graduate of Harvard, a leader in society, and a man of +whom great things were predicted, whose name was in many mouths as that +of a man likely to achieve distinction in any path of life he should +select, made a hasty, ill-advised marriage with a Miss Ethel Ross, a +New York belle of surpassing beauty and acumen. A woman whose sole +thought was pleasure, whose highest conception of the good of life was +a constantly varied menu of social excitement, and whose noblest +reading of the word duty was compassed in having a well ordered house, +sumptuous entertainments, and irreproachable toilets. A wife to +satisfy any man who was unemotional, unexacting, and prepared to give +way to her in all things. + +Nesbit Thorne, unfortunately, was none of these things, and so his +married life had come to grief. The first few months were smoothed and +gilded by his passionate enjoyment of her mere physical perfection, his +pleasure in the admiration she excited, and in the envy of other men. +Life's river glided smoothly, gayly in the sunshine; then ugly snags +began to appear, and reefs, fretting the surface of the water, and +hinting of sterner difficulties below; then a long stretch of tossing, +troubled water, growing more and more turbulent as it proceeded, +boiling and bubbling into angry whirlpools and sullen eddies. The boat +of married happiness was hard among the breakers, tossed from side to +side, the sport of every wind of passion; contesting hands were on the +tiller ropes. The craft yawed and jerked in its course, a spectacle +for men to weep over, and devils to rejoice in; ran aground on +quicksands, tore and tangled its cordage, rent the planking, and at the +end of a cruise of as many months as it should have lasted years, it +lay a hopeless wreck on the grim bar of separation. + +The affair was managed gracefully, and with due deference to the +amenities. There was gossip, of course--there always is gossip--and +public opinion was many sided. Rumors circled around which played the +whole gamut from infidelity to bankruptcy; these lived their brief +span, and then gave place to other rumors, equally unfounded, and +therefore equally enjoyable. The only fact authenticated, was the fact +of separation, and the most lasting conclusion arrived at in regard to +the matter was that it had been managed very gracefully. + +The divorce which seemed the natural outcome of this state of affairs, +and to which every one looked, as a matter of course, was delayed in +this instance. People wondered a little, and then remembered that the +Thornes were a Roman Catholic family, and concluded that the young man +had religious scruples. With Mrs. Thorne the matter was plain enough; +she had no reason, as yet, sufficiently strong to make her desire +absolute release, and far greater command over Thorne's income by +retaining her position as his wife. + +When his domestic affairs had reached a crisis, Thorne had quietly +disappeared for a year, during which time people only knew that he was +enjoying his recovered freedom in distant and little frequented places. +There were rumors of him in Tartary, on the Niger, in Siberia. At the +expiration of the year he returned to New York, and resumed his old +place in society as though nothing untoward had occurred. He lived at +his club, and no man or woman ever saw him set foot within the +precincts of his own house. Occasionally he was seen to stop the nurse +in the park, and caress and speak to his little son. His life was that +of a single man. In the society they both frequented, he often +encountered his wife, and always behaved to her with scrupulous +politeness, even with marked courtesy. If he ever missed his home, or +experienced regret for his matrimonial failure, he kept the feeling +hidden, and presented to the world an unmoved front. + +In default of nearer ties, he made himself at home in his aunt's house, +frequenting it as familiarly as he had done in the days before his +marriage. In his strong, almost passionate nature, there was one great +weakness; the love and admiration of women was a necessity to him. He +could no more help trying to make women love him, than the kingfisher +can help thrusting down his beak when the bright speckled sides of his +prey flash through the water. It was from neither cruelty nor vanity, +for Thorne had less of both traits than usually falls to the lot of +men; it was rather from the restlessness, the yearning of a strong +nature for that which it needed, but had not yet attained; the +experimental searching of a soul for its mate. That sorrow might come +to others in the search he scarcely heeded; was he to blame that fair +promises would bud and lead him on, and fail of fruition? To himself +he seemed rather to be pitied; their loss was balanced by his own. +Thorne had never loved as he was capable of loving; as yet the _ego_ +was predominant. + +As he entered the room, after an absence of weeks, with a smile and a +pleasant word of greeting, the younger members of the circle fell upon +him clamorously; full of themselves and their individual concerns. +Even Warner, in whose mind lurked a jealousy of his cousin's influence, +forgot it for the nonce, and was as eager to talk as the rest. Nesbit +found himself listening to a demand for advice, an appeal for sympathy, +and a paean of gratulation, before he had made his salutations, or +gotten himself into a chair. + +"Hold on!" he cried, putting up his hand in protest. "Don't all talk +at once. I can't follow. What's the matter, Norma?" + +His eye turned to his favorite involuntarily, and an almost +imperceptible brightening, a lifting of the clouds on that young lady's +horizon, began to take place. She answered his look, and (assisted by +the irrepressible Percival) unfolded to him the family plans. Thorne, +with good-humored enthusiasm, threw himself into the scheme, pronounced +it delightful, and proceeded to indulge in all manner of cheerful +prognostications. Percival was enchanted, and, establishing himself +close beside the arm of his cousin's chair, commenced a series of +vehement whispers, which lasted as long as the visit. Norma's brow +cleared more and more, and when Thorne declared his intention of paying +them a long visit during the hunting season, she allowed a smile to +wreathe her full crimson lips, and snubbed poor little Blanche +unmercifully for still daring to be lachrymose. + +The talk grew momentarily merrier, and the mother listened, smiling; +her eyes, with a tender glow in them, fixed on Warner's face. The sick +boy was in raptures over the old house mossed over with history and +tradition, which would be his future home. Noting the eagerness of his +interest, her heart gave a sudden bound, hope took her by the hand, and +she dreamed dreams. There might come a reaction and improvement. At +times the intuition of an invalid was the voice of nature, crying out +for that which she needed. Warner's longing for this change might be +the precursor of his cure. Who could read the future? + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Backward and forward, from pantry to sideboard, from sideboard to china +closet, flitted Pocahontas Mason setting the table for breakfast. +Deftly she laid out the pretty mats on the shining mahogany, arranged +the old-fashioned blue cups and saucers, and placed the plates and +napkins. She sang at her work in a low, clear voice, more sweet than +powerful, and all that her hands found to do was done rapidly and +skillfully, with firm, accustomed touches, and an absence of jar and +clatter. In the center of the table stood a corpulent Wedgwood +pitcher, filled with geraniums and roses, to which the girl's fingers +wandered lovingly from time to time, in the effort to coax each blossom +into the position in which it would make the bravest show. On one +corner, near the waiter, stood a housewifely little basket of keys, +through the handle of which was thrust a fresh handkerchief newly +shaken out. + +When all the arrangements about the table had been completed, +Pocahontas turned her attention to the room, giving it those manifold +touches which, from a lady's fingers, can make even a plain apartment +look gracious and homelike. Times had changed with the Masons, and +many duties formerly delegated to servants now fell naturally to the +daughter of the house. Perhaps the change was an improvement: Berkeley +Mason, the young lady's brother, maintained that it was. + +Having finished her work, Pocahontas crossed the room to one of the +tall, old-fashioned windows, and pushed open the half-shut blinds, +letting a flood of sunshine and morning freshness into the room. Under +the window stood an ottoman covered with drab cloth, on which the +fingers of some dead and gone Mason had embroidered a dingy wreath of +roses and pansies. Pocahontas knelt on it, resting her arms on the +lofty window-sill, and gazed out over the lawn, and enjoyed the dewy +buoyance of the air. The September sunshine touched with golden glory +the bronze abundance of her hair, which a joyous, rollicking breeze, +intoxicated with dew and the breath of roses, tangled and tumbled into +a myriad witcheries of curl and crinkle. The face, glorified by this +bright aureole, was pure and handsome, patrician in every line and +curve, from the noble forehead, with its delicate brown brows, to the +well-cut chin, which spoke eloquently of breadth of character and +strength of will. The eyes were gray, and in them lay the chief charm +of the face, for their outlook was as honest and fearless as that of a +child--true eyes they were, fit windows for a brave, true soul. + +The house, neutral-tinted with years and respectability, stood well +back from the river, to whose brink the smooth, green lawn swept in +scarcely perceptible undulation. The river here was broad, almost +resembling an arm of the sea it was moving languidly to join. There +was no haste about it, and no fret of ever active current; as all large +bodies should, it moved slowly, and the eye rested gratefully on the +tranquil flow. Across the water, apparently against the far horizon, a +dense line of trees, fringing the further shore, rose tall and dark, +outlined with picturesque distinctness against the soft, warm blue. +The surrounding country was flat, but relieved from monotony by a +certain pastoral peacefulness, and a look of careless plenty which, +with thrift, might have become abundance. In the meadows the grass +grew rich and riotous between the tall stacks of cured hay, and the +fields of corn and tobacco gave vigorous promise of a noble harvest. +The water also teemed with life and a shiftless out-at-elbow energy. +Shabby looking fishing smacks, with dirty white wings, like birds too +indolent to plume themselves, passed constantly, and flat-bottomed +canoes, manned by good-humored negro oystermen, plied a lazy, thievish +trade, with passing steamers. + +Presently a gate slammed somewhere in the regions back of the house, +and there was a sound of neighing and trampling. Pocahontas leaned far +out, shading her eyes with her hands, to watch the colts career wildly +across the lawn, with manes and tails and capering legs tossed high in +air, in the exuberance of equine spirits. Following them sedately came +a beautiful black mare, stepping high and daintily, as became a lady of +distinction. She was Kentucky born and bred, and had for sire none +other than Goldenrod himself. In answer to a coaxing whistle of +invitation, she condescended to approach the window and accept sugar +and caresses. Pocahontas patted the glossy head and neck of the +beauty, chattering soft nonsense while the little heap of sugar she had +placed on the window-sill vanished. Presently she laid an empty palm +against the nose pushed in to her, and dealt it a gentle blow. + +"That's all, Phyllis; positively all this morning. You would empty the +sugar bowl if I'd let you. No, take your nose away; it's all gone; +eleven great lumps have you had, and the feast of the gods is over." + +But Phyllis would not be convinced; she pushed her nose up over the +window ledge, and whinnied softly. As plainly as a horse can beg, she +begged for more, but her mistress was obdurate. Placing both hands +behind her, she drew back into the room, laughing. + +"Not another lump," she called, "eleven are enough. Greedy Phyllis, to +beg for more when you know I'm in earnest. Go away and play with the +colts; you'll get no more to-day." + +"You'll never make Phyllis believe that, my dear," remarked a tall, +gray-haired lady, in a pretty muslin cap, who had entered unperceived. + +"Oh, yes, mother. She understands quite well. See, she's moving off +already. Phyllis knows I never break my word, and that persuasion is +quite useless," replied Pocahontas, turning to give her mother the +customary morning kiss, to place her chair before the waiter for her, +and to tell her how becoming her new cap was. The Masons never +neglected small courtesies to each other. + +The branch of the Mason family still resident at the old homestead of +Lanarth had dwindled to four living representatives--Mrs. Mason, who +had not changed her name in espousing her cousin Temple Mason, of +Lanarth, and her son Berkeley, and daughters Grace and Pocahontas. +There had been another son, Temple, the younger, whose story formed one +of those sad memories which are the grim after-taste of war. All three +of the Masons had worn gray uniforms; the father had been killed in a +charge at Malvern Hill, the elder son had lost his good right arm, and +the younger had died in prison. + +Of the two daughters, Grace had early fulfilled her destiny in true +Virginian fashion, by marrying a distant connection of her family, a +Mr. Royall Garnett, who had been a playmate of her brothers, and whose +plantation lay in an adjoining county. With praiseworthy conservatism, +Mrs. Garnett was duplicating the uneventful placidity of her parents' +early years, content to rule her household wisely, to love and minister +to her husband, and to devote her energies to the rearing of her +children according to time-honored precedent. Pocahontas, the youngest +of the family, was still unmarried, nay, more--still unengaged. + +They had called her "Pocahontas" in obedience to the unwritten law of +southern families, which decrees that an ancestor's sin of distinction +shall be visited on generations of descendants, in the perpetuation of +a name no matter what its hideousness. It seems a peculiarity of +distinguished persons to possess names singularly devoid of beauty; +therefore, among the burdens entailed by pride upon posterity, this is +a grievous one. Some families, with the forest taint in their blood, +at an early date took refuge in the softer, prettier "Matoaca;" but not +so the Masons. It was their pride that they never shirked an +obligation, or evaded a responsibility: they did not evade this one. +Having accepted "Pocahontas" as the name by which their ancestress was +best known, they never swerved from it; holding to it undaunted by its +length and harshness, and unmoved by the discovery of historians that +Pocahontas is no name at all, but simply a pet sobriquet applicable to +all Indian girls alike, and whose signification is scarcely one of +dignity. Historians might discover, disagree, wrangle and explain, but +Pocahontas followed Pocahontas in the Mason family with the undeviating +certainty of a fixed law. + +To the present Pocahontas (the eighth in the line) it really seemed as +though the thing should stop. She yielded to the family fiat her own +case, because not having been consulted she had no option in the +matter, but when Grace's little daughter was born she put in a plea for +the child. + +"Break the spell," she entreated, "and unborn generations will bless +you. We Virginians will keep on in one groove until the crack of doom +unless we are jerked out of it by the nape of the neck. Your heart +ought to yearn over the child--mine does. It's a wicked sin to call a +pretty baby by such a monstrous name." + +Grace trampled on the protest: "Not name her Pocahontas? Why, of +_course_ I shall! If the name were twice as long and three times as +ugly my baby should bear it. I wonder you should object when you know +that every Pocahontas in the family has invariably turned out an +exceptionally fine woman. All have been noble, truthful, honorable; +quick to see the right and unswerving in pursuit of it. I shall call +my baby by that name, and no other." + +Pocahontas opened her eyes. "Why, Grace," she said, "you talk as if +the name were a talisman; as if virtues were transmitted with it. +Isn't that silly?" + +"Not at all," responded Grace promptly; "unless we cease to be +ourselves after death, we _must_ still take interest in the things of +this world, in our families and descendants. We may not be able +actually to transmit our virtues to them, but surely by guardian +influence we can help them imitate ancestral good qualities. Guardian +angels of our own blood are a great deal nearer than outside angels, +and I believe the dear Lord appoints them whenever he can; and if so, +why shouldn't the good women who are in heaven take interest in my baby +who will bear their name? It _is_ their name still, and it must hurt +them to see it soiled; of course they must take interest. Were I an +angel, the child on earth who bore my name should be my special charge." + +"Then, according to your showing, Grace, six good women, now holy +angels, have baby and me in constant keeping for love of our ugly name. +The idea is fanciful, and I don't consider it orthodox: but it's +pretty, and I like it. Miss Pocahontas the ninth, you and I must walk +with circumspection, if not to grieve the good ladies up above who are +kind enough to take such interest in us." + +Pocahontas mocked at Grace's idea, but it pleased her all the same, and +unconsciously it influenced her more than she knew. She loved the +legends of her house, delighted in the fact of descent from brave men +and true women. The past held her more than is common with the young +people of the present day, and she sought out and treasured all the +records of the six women who had borne her name, from the swarthy +Indian princess down to the gentle gray-haired lady who held the place +of honor at the Lanarth breakfast table. + +"Princess," said Mrs. Mason, as she distributed the sugar and cream, "I +wish you'd ring the bell. Rachel must have breakfast ready by this +time, and I hear Berkeley's step outside." + +Princess rang the bell quite meekly. The pet sobriquet was in as +familiar use among them as her real name, but her touch on the bell did +not suggest the imperiousness of royalty. Aunt Rachel was an old +family servant, faithful, fat, and important, and Aunt Rachel _hated_ +to be hurried. She said "it pestered her, an' made her spile the +vittles." She answered promptly this time, however, entering with the +great waiter of hot and tasty dishes before the bell had ceased its +faint tintinnabulation. Berkeley, a tall fair man, whose right sleeve +was fastened against his breast, entered also. + +"I saw Jim Byrd this morning," he remarked as he seated himself, after +the customary greeting to his mother and sister. "He called here on +his way over to Roy Garnett's, where he was going to bid good-by. I +asked him in to breakfast, but he couldn't stop; said he had promised +Grace to take breakfast with them. He has to make a farewell tour, or +old friends' feelings will be hurt. It's rather awful, and hard on +Jim, but he couldn't bear the thought of the neighbors feeling +slighted. I suggested a barbecue and a stump speech and bow, but the +idea didn't seem to appeal to Jim. Poor old fellow!" + +"Couldn't he contrive to hold Shirley, Berke?" questioned Mrs. Mason, +as she passed his cup. "He had retained possession so long, there must +have been some way to hold it altogether." + +"No; the thing was impossible," replied Berkeley; "the plantation was +mortgaged to the hub before Jim was born. The Byrds have been +extravagant for generations, and a crash was inevitable. Old Mr. Byrd +could barely meet the interest, even before the loss of Cousin Mary's +money. During the last years of his life some of it was added to the +principal, which made it harder work for Jim. But for Jim's +management, and the fact that the creditors all stood like a row of +blocks in which the fall of one would inevitably touch off the whole +line, things would have gone to smash long ago. Each man was afraid to +move in the matter, lest by so doing he should invite his own creditors +to come down on him. Until lately they haven't bothered Jim much +outside of wringing all the interest out of him they could get. While +his sisters were single, he was obliged to keep a home together for +them, you know. Nina's marriage last spring removed that +responsibility, and I reckon it's a relief to Jim to relinquish the +struggle." + +"What a pity old Mr. Byrd persuaded Mary to sell out her bonds, and +invest the money in tobacco during the war!" observed Mrs. Mason, +regretfully. "It would have been something for the children if she had +kept the bonds. It was too bad that those great warehouses, full of +tobacco, belonging to the Byrds and Masons were burned in Richmond at +the evacuation. Charlie Mason persuaded Mr. Byrd into that +speculation, and although Charlie is my own cousin and Mary's brother, +I must admit that he did wrong. Your father always disapproved of the +sale of those bonds." + +"The speculation was a good one, and would have paid splendidly had +events arranged themselves differently; even at the worst no one could +foresee the burning of Richmond. Cousin Mary's money couldn't have +freed Shirley, but if things had gone well with the venture, that +tobacco would have done so, and left a handsome surplus. Charlie Mason +is a man of fine judgment, and that he failed that time was through no +fault of his. It was the fortunes of war." + +Mrs. Mason sighed and dropped the subject. She was unconvinced, and +continued to feel regret that Mr. Byrd had been allowed to work his +speculative will with his wife's little patrimony. It would have been +a serviceable nest-egg for the children, and a help to Jim in his long +struggle. All of her life, she had been accustomed to seeing husbands +assume full control of their wives' property, using it as their own, +and she had taken little thought of the equities of the matter. To her +it appeared natural that a wife's surrender to her husband should +embrace things financial as well as things less material, but in this +case she had always felt it a trifle hard. It would have been such a +pleasant thing for Jim to have had some money, and been able to hold +Shirley. + +Pocahontas helped herself to hot waffles, and sugared them with a +liberal hand. + +"Dear old Jim," she said, calmly, "I wish he had come in: you should +have insisted, Berkeley. It's cruel for him to have to give up the old +home to strangers, and start life in a new place. I can't bear to +think of it. Jim's such a good fellow, and Mexico seems a long way +off. When is he coming to say good-by to us, Berke?" + +"This evening. He is coming to tea; so mind you have something +special." + +After a pause, Mrs. Mason resumed the subject with the inquiry whether +he had heard any thing relative to the purchaser of Shirley. But +Berkeley only knew that the place had been bought by a northern man, a +retired army officer, and that his name was Smith. + +After they rose from the table, he lingered awhile, watching his mother +gather the cups and saucers into the waiter in readiness for Aunt +Rachel, and Pocahontas collect scraps for the dogs, two of which were +already poking impatient, wistful noses into the room. Beyond the +threshold they were not allowed to intrude, but they stood in the +passage outside the open door, and whined and indulged in sharp "yaps" +of protest against hope deferred. When they saw their mistress +advancing with a heaped-up plate of food, both gave reins to their joy, +and jumped and barked around her with delight. Pocahontas loved +animals; the nobleness and fidelity of their instincts, harmonized with +the large faithfulness of her own nature. + +When his sister was out of hearing, Berkeley reopened the topic of Jim +Byrd. He was standing at the mantle filling his pipe, which he +balanced dextrously against one of the ornaments, and his back was +toward his mother as he spoke. + +"Mother," he questioned, "did it ever occur to you that Jim might grow +fond of Pocahontas--might want her for a wife, in fact? I fancy +something of the sort has happened, and that he came to grief. He has +been depressed and unhappy for months; and neither business, nor +trouble about the old place can account for his shunning us in the way +he has been doing lately. I don't believe he's been inside this house +twice in the last three months." + +"Yes, my dear, I used often to think of it--long before Jim thought of +it himself, I believe, Berkeley. He spoke to Princess this summer, and +she refused him. She did not tell me about it; but from little things +I could guess pretty accurately. It's a great disappointment to me, +for I scarcely remember when the hope that they might love each other +first dawned on my mind. Mary Mason and I were warm friends, as well +as cousins, and it seemed natural that our children should marry." + +Berkeley knew that his mother had wished him to marry Belle or Susie, +and that this was not the first time that she had been disappointed in +her desire for another Byrd-Mason match. Had Temple lived, Nina Byrd +would have been his wife: the two had been sweethearts from babyhood. + +Mrs. Mason sighed regretfully. "I wish it could have been," she said; +"Jim is such a good fellow, and was always gentle and careful with the +little girls, even when he grew a great rough lad; such a little +chevalier in his feelings, too. I remember one Christmas just after +the war, when he was about fourteen, the children wanted some Christmas +green to decorate the parlor. It was the fall you were in the South, +and they wanted to make the room pretty to welcome you home again. +Susie, Nina and my two girls, went over into the Shirley woods to get +it, and Jim went with them. They found plenty of lovely holly, but no +mistletoe for a long time; you know how scarce it is around here. At +last Pocahontas 'spied a splendid bunch, full of pure, waxen berries, +way up in the top of a tall oak tree, and she set her heart at once on +having it. There had been heavy sleet the night before, and every limb +was caked with ice--slippery as glass. Climbing was doubly dangerous, +and Grace begged him not to try, but that foolish Pocahontas looked +disappointed, and Jim dashed right at the tree. It was a terribly +foolhardy thing to do, and Grace said it made her sick to watch him; +every minute she expected to see him slip and come crashing to the +ground. The little girls all cried, and Grace boxed Jim's ears the +instant he was safe on the ground again with the mistletoe. The +children came home in great excitement, Pocahontas with the mistletoe +hugged tight in her arms and tears pouring down her cheeks. When I +scolded Jim for his recklessness, he opened those honest hazel eyes of +his at me in surprise and said, 'But Princess wanted it,' as if that +were quite sufficient reason for risking his life. Poor little +Princess." + +After a moment she resumed: "I wish she could have loved him in the way +we wish. Marriage is a terrible risk for a girl like her. She is too +straightforward, too uncompromisingly intolerant of every-day +littleness, to have a very peaceful life. She has grown up so +different from other girls; so full of ideals and romance; she belongs, +in thought and motives, to the last century rather than to this, if +what I hear be true. She is large-hearted and has a great capacity for +affection, but she is self-willed and she could be hard upon occasion. +If she should fall into weak or wicked hands she would both endure and +inflict untold suffering. And there is within her, too, endless power +of generosity and self-sacrifice. Poor child! with Jim I could have +trusted her; but she couldn't love him, so there's nothing to be done." + +"Why couldn't she?" demanded Berkeley, argumentatively. "She'll never +do any better; Jim's a handsome fellow, as men go, brave, honorable and +sweet-tempered. What more does she want? It looks to me like sheer +perversity." + +Mrs. Mason smiled indulgently at her son's masculine obtuseness. The +subtleties of women were so far beyond his comprehension that it was +hardly worth while to endeavor to make him understand. She made the +effort, however, despite its uselessness. + +"It isn't perversity, Berkeley," she said; "I hardly realize, myself, +why the thing should have seemed so impossible. I suppose, having +always regarded Jim as a kindly old playmate, and big, brotherly +friend, the idea of associating sentiment with him appeared absurd. +Had they ever been separated the affair might have had a different +termination; but there has never been a break in their intercourse--Jim +has always been here, always the same. That won't do with a girl like +Princess. It is too commonplace, too devoid of interest and +uncertainty. Yes, my dear, I know that in your eyes this is folly, but +at the same time it is nature. You don't understand. Princess, I +fear, sets undue value on intellect, holding less brilliant endowments +cheap beside it. And we must admit, Berkeley, dearly as we love Jim +Byrd, and noble fellow as he is, he has not the intellectual power +which commands admiration. With all my respect for intellect, I can +see that Princess greatly overrates it. She has often declared that +unless a man were intellectually her superior, she could never love +him." + +"Intellectually--a fiddle-stick!" scoffed Berkeley, contemptously. +"She don't know what she wants, or what is good for her. Women rarely +do. They make their matrimonial selections like the blindest of bats, +the most egregious of fools, and then, when the mischief is done, go in +for unending sackcloth, or a divorce court. Pocahontas will get hold +of a fellow some day who will wring her heart--with her rubbishing +longing after novelty and intellect, and fine scorn of homespun truth +and loyalty. Were I a woman, I should esteem the size of my husband's +heart, and the sweetness of his temper, matter of more importance than +the bigness of his brain, or the freshness of the acquaintance." + +"Very true, my son," assented Mrs. Mason, gently, "but you are +powerless to alter women. Their hearts must go as nature wills, and +lookers-on can only pray God to guide them rightly. But, Berkeley, you +are unjust to your sister. Pocahontas has sound discrimination, and a +very clear judgment. Her inability to meet our wishes is no proof that +her choice will fall unworthily." + +Berkeley made no response in words, but he looked unconvinced, and soon +withdrew to attend to the plantation, indulging in profound conclusions +about women, which were most of them erroneous. + +In the afternoon Pocahontas, providing herself with a book and a gayly +colored feather fan, established herself comfortably in the old +split-bottomed rocking-chair in the deep shadow of the porch. The day +had been close and sultry, and even the darkened rooms felt stifling; +outside it was better, although the morning freshness had evaporated, +and that of evening had not yet come. The sun sank slowly westward, +sending long rays across the bosom of the river, whose waters were so +still that they gleamed with opalescent splendor. The slender leaves +of the old willows at the foot of the lawn drooped exhaustedly, showing +all their silver linings; and the sky was one tawny blaze of color. +The sail-boats in sight rocked gently with the sluggish flow of the +current, and drifted rather than sailed on their course. Once a noisy, +throbbing steamer, instinct with life and purpose, dashed by +tumultuously, churning the still water with impatient wheels, and +rupturing the slumberous air with its discordant whistle. It jarred +upon the quiet beauty of the scene, and it was a relief when it swept +around a bend of the river, leaving only a trail of blue smoke, which +was harmonious. + +One of the setters who had secreted himself in the house during the hot +hours, stepped out with overdone innocence, and stretched himself in a +shaded corner, panting and yawning dismally. + +Pocahontas formed the only bit of coolness in the picture, sitting in +the shadow of the old porch, in her pretty white dress, with a cape +jessamine blossom showing purely against the bronze knot of her hair, +and another among the laces on her breast. The volume of Emerson +selected for the enlargement of her mental vision lay unheeded in her +lap, and the big fan moved lazily, as the gray eyes gazed and gazed out +over the parched lawn and the glistening river until the glare nearly +blinded them. + +She was thinking of Jim, and feeling pitiful and sad over her old +friend who must break away from every home association, and far from +kindred and family, among strange faces and unfamiliar surroundings, +make for himself a new life. She was sorry for Jim--grieved for his +pain in parting, for his disappointment in regard to herself, for her +own inability to give him the love he longed for. She would have loved +him had it been in her power; she honestly regretted that the calm, +true sisterly affection she felt for him could not be converted into +something warmer. Her friends wished it; his friends wished it. It +was the natural and proper thing to have happened, and yet with her it +had not happened. With Pocahontas, marriage was a very sacred thing, +not to be contemplated lightly, or entered into at all without the +sanctification of a pure, unselfish love. If she should marry Jim now, +it would be with the knowledge that the depths of her nature were +unstirred, the true rich gold still hidden. It did not seem to her +that her old playfellow's hand was the one destined to stir the one, or +discover the other. She might judge wrongly, but so it appeared to +her, and she was too loyal to Jim to imagine for an instant that he +would be satisfied with aught save her very best. + +The evening freshened as the sun went down, a vagrant breeze stole out +from some leafy covert and disported itself blithely. The big Irish +setter moved from the corner to the top step, and ceased yawning. An +old colored man appearing from behind the house took his way across the +lawn in quest of the colts. The dog, with his interest in life +reawakened, bounded off the steps prepared to lend valuable assistance, +but was diverted from this laudable object by the approach of two +gentlemen who must be welcomed riotously. + +Pocahontas, rising, advanced out of the shadow to meet them--Jim Byrd, +and a tall broad-shouldered man with a great silky red beard, her +brother-in-law, Mr. Royall Garnett. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +After a joyous exchange of greeting with her brother-in-law, of whom +she was unusually fond, and a sweet, gracious welcome to her old +play-fellow, Pocahontas withdrew to tell her mother of their arrival, +and to assure herself that every thing was perfectly arranged for Jim's +last meal among them. + +Through some strange deficiency in herself, she was unable to give him +what he most desired, but what she could give him she lavished royally. +She wore her prettiest dress in his honor, and adorned it with his +favorite flowers, forgetful in her eagerness to please him, that this +might make things harder for him. She ordered all the dishes she knew +he liked for tea, and spent a couple of hours in the hot kitchen that +scorching morning preparing a cake that he always praised. With eager +haste she took from its glass-doored cabinet the rare old Mason china, +and rifled the garden of roses to fill the quaint century old +punch-bowl for the center of the table. All things possible should be +done to make Jim feel himself, that night, the honored guest, the +person of most importance in their world. It was an heirloom--the +Mason china--quaint and curious, and most highly prized. There was a +superstition--how originated none knew--that the breakage of a piece, +whether by design or accident, foreboded misfortune to the house of +Mason. Very carefully it was always kept, being only used on rare +occasions when special honor was intended. During the civil war it had +lain securely hidden in a heavy box under the brick pavement of one of +the cellar rooms, thereby escaping dire vicissitudes. Many pieces had +been broken, said to have been followed in every case by calamities +harder to endure than the loss of precious porcelain, but much of it +still remained. In design it was unique, in execution wonderful, and +its history was romantic. + +In the olden time a rich and fanciful Mason had visited the colonies +with one of the expeditions sent out by the Virginia Company of London. +He was an artist of no mean repute, and during his stay in the new +world had made sketches of the strange beautiful scenery, and studies +from the wild picturesque life which captivated his imagination. + +After his return to England, he perfected these drawings from memory, +and some years later crossed over to France, and had them transferred +to china at fabulous cost. The result was very beautiful, for each +piece showed small but exquisite portrayals of life and scenery in the +new world. The scenes were varied, and depicted in soft, glowing +colors, and with a finish that made each a gem. + +On one cup a hunter followed the chase through the silent forest; +another showed a dusky maiden dreaming beside a waterfall; a third, a +group of deer resting in a sunny valley; a fourth, a circle of braves +around a council fire. + +When, in after years, the grandson of the artist had married a bride +with Indian blood in her veins, the punch-bowl had been added as a +special compliment to the lady, and the china had been sent a wedding +gift from the Masons of England, to the Masons of Virginia. The bowl +was very graceful, and contained on one side a lovely representation of +the landing at Jamestown, with the tranquil, smiling river, the vessel +in the offing, and the group of friendly red men on the shore; on the +other was, of course, depicted the rescue of Captain John Smith by the +Indian girl. The bowl was finished at top and bottom with wreaths of +Virginia creepers, forest leaves and blossoms. + +To bring out this precious heirloom in honor of a guest was making him +of consequence indeed. + +Jim knew all about it, and when he caught sight of the pretty tea-table +he understood the girl's intention and shot a quick, grateful glance +across to her from his brown eyes. A whimsical memory of a superb +breakfast he had once seen served to a man about to be hanged obtruded +itself, but he banished it loyally. As betook the cup with the +dreaming maiden on it from Mrs. Mason's hand, he said gratefully: + +"How good of you to have out the beautiful old china in my honor. When +I was a boy, I always imagined that coffee from these cups tasted +different--had a woodsy, adventurous flavor. I think so still." + +It was a merry meal, despite the shadow in the background, for the +gentlemen taking their cue from Pocahontas vied with each other in +talking nonsense, and depicting ridiculous phases of camp life in the +tropics with Jim always for the hero of the scene. And Jim, shaking +off the dismal emotions peculiar to farewell visits, responded +gallantly, defending himself from each sportive attack, and illumining +his exile with such rays of promise as occurred to him. He knew these +old friends were sorry to lose him, and trying to lessen the wrench of +parting; and being a quiet, self-controlled man--more given to action +than speech, and with a deep abhorrence of scenes, he appreciated their +efforts. + +After tea, Berkeley and Royall lit their pipes and strolled out toward +the stables, leaving Jim and Pocahontas alone together on the porch. +The girl leaned back in her chair silently, not trying to make +conversation any more, and Jim sat on the steps at her feet, letting +his eyes follow wistfully the slope of the lawn, and the flow of the +river. Presently, without turning his head, he asked her to walk with +him down to the old willows by the riverside, for a farewell look on +the scene so dear to him, and Pocahontas rose instantly and slipped her +hand within his proffered arm. + +Down by the river, where the lawn bent softly to the wooing of the +water, stood two ancient willows of unusual size: they were gnarled +with age, but vigorous and long limbed. The story ran that once a +Pocahontas Mason, the lady of the manor here, had lovers twain--twin +brothers who being also Masons were her distant cousins. One she +loved, and one she did not, but both loved her, and being passionate +men both swore that they would have her, come what might; and cause any +man that came between, most bloodily to rue it. Between the brothers +there arose quarrels, and ill feeling, which afflicted the lady, who +was a good woman, and averse to breaking the peace of families. That +brothers--twin-brothers, should be scowling venomously at each other +because of her, appeared a grievous thing, and she set herself to mend +it. By marrying the man she loved, she could end the affair at once, +but his brother would never forgive him, and before love had maddened +them the men had been friends as well as brothers. She gauged their +characters thoughtfully, and hit upon a plan--which, at the expense of +some self-sacrifice, would arrange the matter peacefully. Bidding both +lovers attend her one day, she brought them to this spot, and cutting +two willow wands of exactly the same length and thickness she stuck +them deep into the moist soil, and announced her decision. They would +wait three years, she said, and at the end of that time the man whose +tree had grown the strongest, should come and claim his answer. She +would attend to both willows herself, giving to each the same care, and +treating them with equal fairness. Then she made the men shake hands +in amity once more, and swear to abide by her decision. + +The story further tells that both willows flourished finely, but that +in the last year the true love's tree outstripped its mate, as was +right and proper. As the lady had anticipated, when the term of +probation expired only one of the twins appeared to claim an answer to +his suit. And in the pocket of the constant man, when he kissed his +own true love, lay a letter, from across the seas, full of brotherly +affection and congratulation. + +This little story was a favorite with Pocahontas, and she was fond of +relating how her great-great-grandmother by a little wit and generous +self-sacrifice, averted a feud between brothers, and kept family peace +unbroken. + +The trees were always called "The Lovers," and under their sweeping +branches the young people were fond of gathering on moonlit summer +evenings. + +Pocahontas seated herself under the larger tree on the dry, warm grass, +and Jim leaned against the rugged trunk, silently drinking in, with his +eyes, the still beauty of the night--the silvery sheen of the water, +the pure bend of the sky, the slope of the lawn, and the gray +tranquillity of the old house in the background. And as he gazed, +there awoke in his breast, adding to its pain, that weary yearning +which men call home-sickness. + +With a shuddering sigh and a movement of the strong shoulders as though +some burden were settling down upon them, Jim dropped himself to the +ground beside his companion, and suffered her gently to possess herself +of his tobacco pouch and pipe. The girl felt that the peacefulness of +the scene jarred upon his mood, and set herself to soothe him into +harmony with himself and nature. Jim watched the white fingers deftly +fill the bowl, and strike the match for him; then he took it from her +hand and breathed softly through the curved stem until the fire circled +brightly round, and the tobacco all was burning. He leaned back on his +elbow and sent the smoke out in long quiet wreaths, and Pocahontas, +with her hands folded together in her lap, watched it rise and vanish +dreamily. + +"I wonder," she murmured presently, "if the nights out there--in +Mexico, I mean--can be more beautiful than this. I have read +descriptions, and dreamed dreams, but I can't imagine any thing more +perfect than that stretch of water shimmering in the moonlight, and the +dark outline of the trees yonder against the sky." + +"It's more than beautiful; it's _home_." Jim's voice shook a little. +"Do you know, Princess, that whenever the memory of home comes to me +out yonder in the tropics, it will be just this picture, I shall always +see. The river, the lights and shadows on the lawn, the old gray +house, and _you_, with the flowers on your breast, and the moonlight on +your dear face. Don't be afraid, or move away; I'm not going to make +love to you--all that is over; but your face must always be to me the +fairest and sweetest on earth." He paused a moment, and then added, +looking steadily away from her; "I want to tell you--this last time I +may ever have an opportunity of speaking to you alone--that you are +never to blame yourself for what has come and gone. It's been no fault +of yours. You could no more help my loving you than I could help it +myself; or than you could make yourself love me in return." + +"Oh, Jim, dear!" spoke the girl, quickly and penitently, "I do love +you. I do, indeed." + +"I know it, Princess, in exactly the same way you love Roy Garnett, and +immeasurably less than you love Berkeley. That isn't what I wanted, +dear. I'm a dull fellow, slow at understanding things, and I can't put +my thoughts into graceful, fluent language; but I know what love is, +and what I wanted you to feel is very different. Don't be unhappy +about it--or me. I'll worry through the pain in time, or grow +accustomed to it. It's tough, just at first, but I'll pull through +somehow. It shall not spoil my life either, although it must mar it; a +man must be a pitiful fellow, who lets himself go to the bad because +the woman he loves won't have him. God means every man to hold up his +own weight in this world. I'd as soon knock a woman down as throw the +blame of a wasted life upon her." + +Pocahontas listened with her eyes on the folded hands in her lap, +realizing for the first time how deeply the man beside her loved her. +Would any other man ever love her with such grand unselfishness, she +wondered, ever give all, receive nothing in return, and still give on. +_Why_ could not she love him? Why was her heart still and speechless, +and only her mind responsive. He was worthy of any woman's love; why +could not she give him hers? + +Ask the question how she would, the answer was always the same. She +did not love him; she could not love him; but the reason was beyond her. + +After a little while Jim spoke again: "When you were a little girl," he +said, "I always was your knight. In all our plays, and troubles, it +was always _me_ you wanted. My boat was the one you liked best, and my +dog and horse would come to your whistle as quickly as to mine. I was +the one always to care for you and carry out your will. That can never +be again, I know, but don't forget me, Princess. Let the thought of +your old friend come to you sometimes, not to trouble you, only to +remind you when things are hard and rough, and you need comfort, that +there's a heart in the world that would shed its last drop to help you." + +With quick impulse Pocahontas leaned forward and caught his hand in +hers, and before he could divine her intention, bent her head and laid +her soft, warm lips against it. When she lifted her eyes to his there +were tears in them, and her voice trembled as she said: "I will think +of you often, old friend; of how noble you are, and how unselfish. You +have been generous to me all my life; far more generous than I have +ever deserved." + +As they arose, to return to the house, the jasmin blossom fell from the +girl's hair to the ground at Jim's feet; he stooped and raised it. +"May I keep it?" he said. + +She bowed her head, silently. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +In the dining-room at Lanarth stood Pocahontas, an expression of +comical dismay upon her face, a pile of dusty volumes on the floor at +her feet. The bookcase in the recess by the fireplace, with yawning +doors and empty shelves, stood swept and garnished, awaiting +re-possession. In a frenzy of untimely cleanliness, she had torn all +the books from the repose of years, and now that the deed was beyond +recall, she was a prey to disgust, and given over to repentance. The +morning promised to be sultry, and the pile was very big; outside bugs +and bees and other wise things hummed and sang in leafy places; the +leaves on the magnolias were motionless, and the air asleep. A +butterfly, passing to his siesta on the bosom of a rose, paused an +instant on the window ledge to contemplate her foolishness; the flowers +in the borders hung their heads. Berkeley passed the open window, +looking cool and fresh in summer clothing, and Pocahontas, catching +sight of him, put her fingers to her lips and whistled sharply to +attract his attention, which being done, she followed up the advantage +with pantomimic gestures, indicative of despair, and need of swift +assistance. Berkeley turned good-naturedly, and came in to the rescue, +but when he discovered the service required of him, he regarded it with +aversion, and showed a mean desire to retreat, which unworthiness was +promptly detected by Pocahontas, and as promptly frustrated. + +"Do help me, Berkeley," she entreated. "They must all be put in place +again before dinner, and it only wants a quarter to one now. I can't +do it all before half-past two, to save my life, unless you help me. +You know, mother dislikes a messy, littered room, and I've got your +favorite pudding for dessert. Oh, dear! I'm tired to death already, +and it's _so_ warm!" The rising inflection of her voice conveyed an +impression of heat intense enough to drive an engine. + +"What made you do it?" inquired Berkeley, in a tone calculated to make +her sensible of folly. + +"Mother asked me to dust the books sometime ago, but I neglected it, +and this morning when the sun shone on them I saw that their condition +was disgraceful. I was so much disgusted with my untidiness, that I +dragged them all out on the impulse of the moment, and only realized +how hot it was, and how I hated it, after the deed was done. Come, +Berke, do help me. I'm so tired." + +Thus adjured, Berkeley laid aside his coat, for lifting is warm work +with the sun at the meridian. The empty shirt sleeve had a forlorn and +piteous look as it hung crumpled and slightly twisted by his side. +Berkeley caught it with his other hand and thrust the cuff in the +waistband of his trowsers. He was well used to his loss, and +apparently indifferent to it, but the dangling of the empty sleeve +worried him; the arm was gone close up at the shoulder. + +Then the pair fell to work briskly, dusting, arranging, re-arranging +and chatting pleasantly. Pocahontas plied the duster and her brother +sorted the books and replaced them on the shelves. The sun shone in +royally, until Pocahontas served a writ of ejectment on his majesty by +closing all the shutters; and the sun promptly eluded it by peeping in +between the bars. A little vagrant breeze stole in, full of idleness +and mischief, and meddled with the books--fluttering the leaves of "The +Faery Queen," which lay on its back wide open, lifting up the pages, +and flirting them over roguishly as though bent on finding secrets. +The little noise attracted the girl's attention, and she raised the +book and wiped the covers with her duster. As she slapped it lightly +with her hand to get out all the dust, a letter slipped from among the +leaves and fell to the floor near Berkeley's feet. + +"Where did this come from?" he inquired, as he picked it up. + +"Out of this book," she answered, holding up the volume in her hand. +"It fell out while I was dusting; some one must have left it in to mark +a place. It must have been in the book for years; see how soiled it +is. Whose is it?" + +There is something in the unexpected finding of a stray letter which +stimulates curiosity, and Berkeley turned it in his hand to read the +address. The envelope was soiled like the coat of a traveler, and the +letter was crumpled as though a hand had closed over it roughly. The +writing was distinct and clerkly. "Berkeley Mason, Esq., Wintergreen, +---- Co., Virginia." Mr. Mason examined the blurred, indistinct +postmark. "Point"--something, it seemed to be; and on the other side, +Washington, plain enough, and the date, May, 1865. What letter had +been forwarded him from the seat of government in the spring of '65? +Then memory unfolded itself like a map whose spring is loosened. + +Seating himself in an easy chair, he drew the letter from its envelope, +unfolding it slowly against his knee. It was a half-sheet of ordinary +commercial paper and the lines upon it numbered, perhaps, a dozen. +Mason winced at sight of the heading as though an old wound had been +pressed. His sister, leaning over the back of his chair, read with +him; putting out a hand across his shoulder to help him straighten the +page. It ran thus: + + +POINT LOOKOUT, + +May --, 1865. + +TO BERKELEY MASON, ESQ., Virginia. + +SIR--A Confederate soldier, now a prisoner of war at this place, giving +his name as Temple Mason, is lying in the prison hospital at the point +of death. He was too ill to be sent south with the general transfer, +and in compliance with his urgent request, I write again--the third +time, to inform you of his condition. He can't last much longer, and +in event of his dying without hearing from his friends, he will be +buried in the common cemetery connected with the prison, and his +identity, in all probability, lost. This is what he appears to dread, +and he entreats that you will come to him, in God's name, if you are +still alive. The utmost dispatch will be necessary. + +Respectfully, + +PERCIVAL SMITH, B. G. U. S. A. + +Comdt., U. S. P., Point Lookout. + + +Mason returned the letter to its envelope and leaned back in his chair +thinking. It was one of the many messages of sorrow that had winged +their way through the country in the weeks following the close of the +war; one of the murmurs of pain that had swelled the funeral dirge +vibrating through the land. + +Pocahontas came and seated herself on her brother's knee, gazing at him +with wide gray eyes filled with inquiry. "When did this come? I never +saw it before," she questioned, gravely. + +Then with troubled brow, and voice that grew husky at times, he went +over for her the sad story of the last months of the last year of that +unhappy and fateful struggle. In the autumn of '64 their brother +Temple, a lad of seventeen, had been taken prisoner, with others of his +troop, while making a reconnoissance, and they had been unable to +discover either his condition or place of incarceration. Mason, +himself, had been at home on sick leave, weak and worn with the loss of +his arm and a saber cut across his head. All through the winter and +spring, while calamity followed calamity with stunning rapidity, the +wearing anxiety about Temple continued, made more intolerable by the +contradictory reports of his fate brought by passing soldiers. +Finally, this letter had arrived and converted a dread fear into a +worse certainty. + +It had been handed to Roy Garnett by a Federal officer at Richmond, and +Roy had ridden straight down with it all those weary miles, feeling +curiously certain that it contained news of Temple, and sharing their +anxiety to the full. Roy had been stanch and helpful in their trouble, +aiding in the hurried preparations for the journey, and accompanying +the wounded man, and the pale, resolute mother on their desperate +mission. Then came the hideous journey, the arrival at the prison, the +fearful questioning, the relief akin to pain of the reply; the +interview with the bluff, kindly commandant, who took their hands +heartily and rendered them every assistance in his power. Then, in the +rough hospital of the hostile prison, the strange, sad waiting for the +end, followed by the stranger, sadder home-coming. It was a pitiful +story, common enough both north and south--but none the less pitiful +for its commonness. + +With her head down on her brother's shoulder, Pocahontas sobbed +convulsively. She was familiar with the outlines of the tale, and knew +vaguely of the weeks of anxiety that had lined her mother's gentle face +and silvered her brown hair, but of all particulars she was ignorant. +She had been very young at the time these sad events occurred; the +young brother sleeping in the shadow of the cedars in the old +burying-ground was scarcely more than a name to her, and the memories +of her childhood had faded somewhat, crowded out by the cheerful +realities of her glad girl-life. + +When she broke the silence, it was very softly. "Berkeley," she said, +"it was kindly done of that Federal officer to let us know. This is +the third letter he wrote about poor Temple; the others must have +miscarried." + +"They did; and this one only reached us just in time. You see, +communication with the south in those early days was more than +uncertain. If Roy hadn't happened to be in Richmond, it's a question +whether I should have received this one. It was kindly done, as you +say, and this General Smith was a kindly man. I shall never forget his +consideration for my mother, nor the kindness he showed poor Temple. +But for his aid we could hardly have managed at the last, in spite of +Roy's efforts. We owe him a debt of gratitude I'd fain repay. God +bless him!" + +"Amen!" echoed Pocahontas, softly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +One bright, crisp morning about the middle of October, Pocahontas stood +in the back yard surrounded by a large flock of turkeys. They were +handsome birds of all shades, from lightish red to deep glossy black; +the sunlight on their plumage made flashes of iridescent color, green, +purple, and blue, and that royal shade which seems to combine and +reflect the glory of all three. Their heads were bent picking up the +corn their mistress threw from the little basket in her hand, but +occasionally the great gobblers would pause in their meal, and puff +themselves out and spread their tails and throw their crimson heads +back against their shining feathers, and proudly strut backward and +forward, to the admiration, doubtless, of their mates. + +Turkeys were the young lady's specialty, and on them alone of all the +denizens of the poultry yard did she bestow her personal attention. +From the thrilling moment in early spring when she scribbled the date +of its arrival on the first egg, until the full-grown birds were handed +over to Aunt Rachel to be fattened for the table, the turkeys were her +particular charge, and each morning and afternoon saw her sally forth, +armed with a pan full of curds, or a loaf of brown bread, for her flock. + +Her usual attendant, on these occasions, was a little colored boy named +Sawney--the last of a line of Sawneys extending back to the dining-room +servant of Pocahontas's great-grandmother. The economy in nomenclature +on a southern plantation in the olden time was worthy of Dandie Dinmont +himself. The Sawney in question was a grandson of Aunt Rachel, and an +utterly abominable little darkey, inky black, grotesque, and spoiled to +a degree. He was devoted to Pocahontas, and much addicted to following +her about, wherever she would allow him. At feeding-time he always +appeared as duly as the turkeys, for Pocahontas never forgot to put a +biscuit, or a lump of sugar, in her pocket for him. + +With the largest black gobbler Sawney was on terms of deadly enmity; +for on more than one occasion had his precious biscuit been plucked +from his unsuspicious hand, and borne away in triumph by the wily bird. +Half of feeding time was usually consumed by Sawney in throwing small +stones at his enemy, who, as he was never by any chance smitten, would +raise his head from time to time and gobble his assailant to scorn. + +On this particular morning there had been a lull in the feud. Sawney +had devoured his biscuit unmolested, and had offered no gratuitous +insults to his foe. Pocahontas, having emptied her basket, was +watching her flock with interest and admiration, when Berkeley made his +appearance on the porch with a letter in his hand. He seemed in a +hurry, and called to his sister impatiently. + +"Look here, Princess," he said, as she joined him, "here's a letter +from Jim to old Aunt Violet, his 'mammy.' He told me he had promised +the old woman to write to her. It came with my mail this morning, and +I haven't time to go over to Shirley and read it to her; I wish you +would. She's too poorly to come after it herself, so put on your +bonnet and step over there now, like a good girl." + +"Step over there, indeed!" laughed Pocahontas. "How insinuatingly you +put it. Aunt Vi'let's cabin is way over at Shirley; half a mile beyond +Jim Byrd's line fence." + +"General Smith's line fence, you mean. I wish you'd go, Princess. +There's money in the letter, and I don't want to send it by the +negroes. I promised Jim we'd look after the old woman for them. The +girls want her to come to Richmond, but she won't consent to quit the +old place. She hasn't any children of her own, you know." + +Pocahontas extended her hand for the letter. "She ought to go to +Richmond and live with Belle or Nina," she said, slipping it into her +pocket. "She'd die of homesickness way out in California with Susie. +I wonder whether the new people will let her stay at Shirley?" + +"Oh, yes; Jim made every arrangement when he found she wouldn't consent +to move. He had an understanding with General Smith about the corner +of land her cabin stands on; reserved it, or leased it, or something. +It's all right." + +Always kind, always considerate, thought the girl, wistfully, even amid +the pain and hurry of departure--the sundering of old ties, finding +time to care for the comfort of his old nurse. Good, faithful Jim. + +"Have the new people come?" she called after her brother, as he +disappeared within the house. + +"I don't know. I rather think they have," he answered. "I noticed +smoke rising from the kitchen chimney this morning. Ask Aunt +Rachel--the negroes are sure to know." + +Pausing a moment at the kitchen door to request the servants to inform +her mother that she had walked over to Shirley to read a letter to old +Aunt Vi'let, and would be home in an hour or so, Pocahontas set out on +her expedition, never noticing that little Sawney, with a muttered "Me +d'wine too," was resolutely following her. The way led along a +pleasant country road, as level as a table, which ran, with scarcely a +bend, or turning, straight from the Masons' back gate over to the +ancient home of the Byrd family at Shirley. Overhead the interlacing +branches of oak and magnolia trees made a gorgeous canopy of glossy +green and russet, and the sunshine filtering through the leaves +embroidered the old road with an intricate pattern of light and shadow. +Now and then a holly tree, or bush, bright with berries, made a lovely +dash of color, and glowed all over with suggestions of Christmas and +rejoicing. + +Pocahontas sauntered slowly, enjoying the beauty of the morning, and +thinking happy thoughts of the past, in which were mingled memories of +the three Byrd girls, who had been her playmates, and of Jim. It was +just beside that holly that Nina Byrd, an enterprising child, had +fallen over the fence into a mud puddle, while in pursuit of a little +striped ground squirrel, and soiled her hands and dress, and afterward +shook her and Susie because they laughed at her. Nina was always +passionate. And over in that meadow, she had once been forced to take +refuge in a tree from the hostile demonstrations of an unruly heifer +whose calf she had annoyed with overtures of friendship. She had sat +among the branches, forlorn and frightened, for more than an hour, +feeling that each moment was a month, and that such a thing as +forgetfulness was impossible to the bovine mind, when Jim, cantering +home from school over in the village, had spied her out and rescued her. + +Passing from retrospect to anticipation, the girl's mind wandered to +the new arrivals, and idle speculations about them filled it. +Naturally, her thoughts were colored by her wishes, and she pleased +herself with fancying them agreeable people, refined and cultured, with +whom association would be pleasant. Her fancy was untrammeled, for her +facts were few, and the name afforded no clew whatever. People named +"Smith" might be any thing--or nothing, regarded socially. The name +was non-committal, but it suggested possibilities, and its range was +infinite. Wits, felons, clergymen, adventurers, millionaires and +spendthrifts, all had answered to the unobtrusive cognomen. It was +plain and commonplace, but as baffling as a disguise. With Talbot, +Meredith, or Percival, the case is different, such nomenclature +presupposes gentility. As the name "Percival" crossed the girl's mind +in her whimsical musings, her thoughts seized upon it and fitted it +instantly to the name which had preceded it, Percival--and Smith! +Percival Smith! That was the name signed to the letter they had +re-discovered after its sleep of years--the letter telling them of +Temple. This newcomer was, or had been, an army officer--a general. +Suppose it should be the same person? Nay; it must be--it _was_! Her +mind leaped to the delightful conclusion impetuously, and before she +had proceeded ten yards further, Pocahontas was fully convinced of the +correctness of her conclusion, and busy with plans for returning the +kindness they had received. + +Filled with pleasure in her thought, her steps quickened, as though her +feet were trying to keep pace with her bright imaginings. And so +engrossed was she with castle-building, that it was only when she +stopped to climb a fence separating the road from a field through which +lay a short cut to Aunt Violet's cabin, that she became aware of her +small attendant. + +"Why, Sawney, who told you to come?" she questioned, as she sprang to +the ground on the other side. The little fellow slowly and carefully +mounted the fence, balancing his fat body on the top rail as he turned +circumspectly in order to scramble down. When the landing had been +safely effected, he peered up at her with twinkling eyes, and +announced, with the air of one imparting gratifying intelligence: +"Nobody. I tum myse'f. I dwine long-er you." + +"There are sheep in this field; you'd better run home. They'll scare +you to death." + +"Ain't 'feard," was the valiant response. + +Pocahontas wrinkled up her brows; it was almost too far to send him +back alone, and there was no one passing along the road who could +escort him to the home gate--even if he would go, which was unlikely. +It would not do to start him home with the certainty that he would +return, the instant her eye was off him, and stand by the fence, +peeping through the cracks until she should get back to him. Since he +had followed her so far, it would be better to let him go all the way. + +"Come, then," she said, doubtfully, "I suppose I must take you, +although you had no business to follow me. If the sheep come after us, +Sawney, remember that you're not afraid. You must not cry, or hold on +to my dress with your dirty little hands. Do you hear?" + +"Ya-m," acquiesced Sawney, with suspicious readiness, resuming his line +of march behind her. + +They pursued their way uneventfully until they had reached the middle +of the field when the catastrophe, which Pocahontas had anticipated, +occurred. A flock of sheep peacefully grazing at a little distance, +suddenly raised their heads, and advanced with joyful bleating, +evidently regarding the pair as ministering spirits come to gratify +their saline yearning. Sawney--perjured Sawney! all unmindful of his +promise, no sooner beheld their advance, than he halted instantly, the +muscles of his face working ominously. + +"Come on, Sawney," urged the young lady, encouragingly, "the sheep +won't hurt you: they think we have salt for them; come on." + +But Sawney had no confidence in the explanation, and plainly +discredited the statement of the animals' lack of hostile intention. +He refused to stir: nay, more, he dropped himself solidly to the earth +with an ear-splitting howl, and grabbed tight hold of Pocahontas's +dress with both grimy paws; the sheep, meanwhile, came hurrying up at a +sharp trot, pushing against each other in their haste, and bleating in +glad anticipation of a treat. Some of the boldest ventured near enough +to sniff the girl's dress, gazing up at her expectantly, with their +soft, pretty eyes; a proceeding which evoked redoubled yells from +Sawney. They were perfectly harmless; even the rams were peaceful, +which made the child's conduct the more provoking. In vain Pocahontas +coaxed, threatened and commanded, in vain she assured him solemnly that +the sheep would not hurt him, and acrimoniously that if he did not hush +instantly and get up, she would leave him alone for the sheep to eat +up. Sawney would not stir. The more she talked the louder he howled +and the more obstinately he clung to her dress. Then she took off her +hat and waved it at the animals who sprang aside, startled at first, +but returned in closer ranks with more insistent bleating. Losing +patience at last, Pocahontas stooped and caught the boy by his +shoulders and shook him soundly. She was about to proceed to more +violent measures when a voice at her elbow said quietly: + +"Perhaps I can be of service to you." + +She started, and glanced round quickly. A slender, dark, young man, a +stranger, was standing beside her, glancing, with unconcealed +amusement, from her flushed, irate countenance to the sulky, streaming +visage at her feet. + +"Oh, thank you; you can indeed," accepting his proffered aid with +grateful readiness. "If you will kindly drive these sheep away, I'll +be much indebted to you. This provoking little boy is afraid of them, +or pretends to be, and I can't induce him to stir. Now, Sawney, hush +that abominable noise this instant! The gentleman is going to drive +all the sheep away." + +With perfect gravity, but his eyes full of laughter, Nesbit Thorne +flourished his cane and advanced on the flock menacingly. The animals +backed slowly. "Will that do?" he called, when he had driven them +about a hundred yards. + +"A little further, please," she answered. "No, a great deal further; +quite to the end of the field. He won't move yet!" Her voice quivered +with suppressed mirth. + +Feeling like "Little Boy Blue" recalled to a sense of duty, Thorne +pursued the sheep remorselessly; the poor beasts, convinced at last +that disappointment was to be their portion, trotted before him meekly, +giving vent to their feelings in occasional bleats of reproach. + +Meanwhile, Pocahontas lifted Sawney forcibly to his feet, and led him +across to the opposite fence, over which she helped him to climb, being +determined that no more scenes should be inflicted on her that morning. +When she had put a barrier between him and danger, she ordered him to +sit down and calm his shattered nerves and recover his behavior. She +remained within the field, herself, leaning against the fence and +awaiting the gentleman's return, that she might thank him. + +By the time he rejoined her, Nesbit Thorne had decided that his new +acquaintance was a very handsome, and unusually attractive woman. The +adventure amused him, and he had a mind to pursue it further. As he +approached, he removed his hat courteously, with a pleasant, +half-jocular remark about the demoralized condition of her escort, and +a word indicative of his surprise at finding a country child, of any +color, afraid of animals. + +"Yes; it is unusual," she assented, smiling on him with her handsome +gray eyes, "I can't account for his terror, for I'm sure no animal has +ever harmed him. If he were older I'd accuse him of trying to earn a +cheap notoriety, but he's almost too little to pretend. He's a +troublesome monkey, and if I'd noticed he was following me, I'd have +forbidden him. I'm much indebted for your kindly service; without your +assistance, Sawney would have sat there screaming until they organized +an expedition at home to cruise in search of us, or the sheep had +retired of their own accord." + +"Not as bad as that, I guess," he returned, extending his hand to aid +her in mounting the fence, noticing that the one she gave him was +delicate and shapely, and that the foot, of which he caught a glimpse, +was pretty, and well-arched. He would gladly have detained her talking +in the pleasant sunshine, or even--as time was no object, and all ways +alike--have liked to saunter on beside her, but there was no mistaking +the quiet decision of her manner as she repeated her thanks and bade +him good morning. + +"Who the dickens was she?" he wondered idly as he leaned on the fence +in his turn, and watched the graceful figure disappearing in the +distance. She walked well, he noticed, without any of the ugly tricks +of gait so many women have; firm and upright, with head finely poised, +and every movement a curve. Her look and voice harmonized with her +carriage; she pleased his artistic sense, and he lowered his lids a +little as he watched her, as one focuses a fine picture, or statue. + +The aesthetic side of Thorne's nature was cultured to the extreme of +fastidiousness; ugly, repulsive, even disagreeable things repelled him +more than they do most men. He disliked intensely any thing that +grated, any thing that was discordant. If "taste is morality," Thorne +had claims to be considered as having attained an unusual development. +His taste ruled him in most things, unless, indeed, his passions were +aroused, or his will thwarted, in which case he could present +angularities of character in marked contrast to the smoothness of his +ordinary demeanor. + +Women amused him, as a rule, more than they interested him. He +constantly sought among them that which, as yet, he had never +found--that which he was beginning to think he never should find, +originality combined with unselfishness. + +Even in that brief interview, Pocahontas had touched a chord in his +nature no woman had ever touched before; it vibrated--very faintly, but +enough to arrest Thorne's attention, for an instant, and to cause him +to bend his ear and listen. In some subtle way, a difference was +established between her and all other women. Her ready acceptance of +his aid, her absolute lack of self-consciousness, even her calmly +courteous dismissal of him, piqued Thorne's curiosity and interest. He +reflected that in all probability he would meet her soon again, and the +idea pleased him. + +As he selected a cigar, the grotesque side of the adventure touched +him; he smiled, and the smile broadened into a laugh as he recalled his +own part in the performance. What would Norma have said, could she +have beheld him heading off sheep from a squalling little African at +the command of an utterly strange young woman? + +Pocahontas related her adventure gleefully when they were all assembled +at dinner; and the amusement it excited was great. Berkeley insisted +teasingly that her deliverer would develop into one of the workmen from +Washington, employed by General Smith in the renovation of Shirley. +One of the carpenters, or--as he looked gentlemanly and wore a coat, a +fresco man, abroad in search of an original idea for the dining-room +ceiling. This idea she had obligingly furnished him, and he would be +able to make a very effective ceiling of her, and Sawney, and the +sheep, if he should handle them rightly. These suggestions Pocahontas +scouted, maintaining gayly that the dark stranger was none other than +her "Smith," the very identical John of her destiny. + +Later she confided to her brother her conjecture relative to the +identity of their new neighbor, and was more delighted than surprised +to learn from him that her surmise had been correct. Berkeley had +obtained the information from the solicitor in Wintergreen, who had +been employed in the transfer of the estate. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Smith family speedily settled down into their new home, and after +the first feeling of strangeness had worn off, were forced to +acknowledge that the reality of country living was not so disagreeable +as they had anticipated. The neighborhood was pleasantly and thickly +settled, the people kind-hearted and hospitable. True, Mrs. Smith +still secretly yearned for modern conveniences and the comforts of a +daily market, and felt that time alone could reconcile her to the +unreliability and inefficiency of colored servants, but even she had +compensation. Her husband--whose time, since his retirement, had hung +like lead upon his hands, was busy, active and interested, full of +plans, and reveling in the pure delight of buying expensive machinery +for the negroes to break, and tons of fertilizers for them to waste. +The girls were pleased, and Norma happier and less difficult than she +had been for years. And, best and most welcome of all, Warner appeared +to strengthen. As for Percival, his satisfaction knew no bounds; his +father had given him a gun and Nesbit Thorne was teaching him how to +use it. + +At the eleventh hour Nesbit Thorne had decided to accompany his +relatives in their flitting, instead of waiting to visit them later in +the season. He was incited thereto by idleness and ennui, leavened by +curiosity as to the manner in which their future life would be ordered, +and also by a genuine desire to be of service to them in the +troublesome move. Perhaps there was, besides, an unacknowledged +feeling in his breast, that with the departure of his kindred, New York +would become lonelier, more wearisome than ever. They had given him a +semblance of a home, and there was in the man's nature an undercurrent +of yearning after love and the rounding out of true domestic life, that +fretted and chafed in its obstructed channel, and tried here and there +blindly for another outlet. + +Thorne's coming with them seemed to the Smiths a very natural +proceeding. His aunt proposed it one day, when he had been more than +usually helpful, vowing that she scarcely knew how to get along without +him, and Thorne fell in with the proposal at once; it made little +difference, since he was coming for the shooting anyway. If Norma had +another theory in regard to his unwillingness to be separated from +them, she was careful to keep it hidden. + +The country gentry, led and influenced by the Masons, extended the +right hand of fellowship to the new-comers, and wrapped the folds of +the social blanket cordially around them. The worldly affairs of the +Virginians, like their surroundings, were in a more or less perceptible +state of dilapidation, and their means frequently failed to match their +hospitality. But their intentions were the best, and the Smiths +(well-bred people, neither arrogant, nor purse-proud) speedily became +reconciled to informality and lack of system, and learned to overlook +deficiencies, or to piece them out with kindness. + +From the first they were thrown much into the society of the Lanarth +family, for the Masons at once assumed right of property in them, being +bent with simple loyalty on defraying some portion of their debt of +gratitude. When their loved one was "sick and in prison" these +strangers had extended to him kindness, and now that opportunity +offered, that kindness should be returned, full measure, pressed down +and running over. For the general, Pocahontas conceived a positive +enthusiasm, a feeling which the jolly old soldier was not slow in +discovering, nor backward in reciprocating; the pair were the best of +friends. + +Ever since the finding of the letter, the girl's mind had been filled +with the story of the brother whom she scarcely remembered. With +tender imagination, she exaggerated his youth, his courage, his +hardships, and glorified him into a hero. Every thing connected with +him appeared pitiful and sacred; his saber hung above the mantle, +crossed with his father's, and she took it down one morning and +half-drew the dulled blade from the scabbard. The brass of the hilt, +and the trimmings of the belt and scabbard were tarnished, and even +corroded in places. She got a cloth and burnished them until they +shone like gold. When she replaced it, the contrast with the other +sword hurt her, and a rush of remorseful tenderness made her take that +down also, and burnish it carefully. Poor father! almost as unknown as +the young brother, she was grieved that he should have been the second +thought. + +She was restoring her father's sword to its place, and re-arranging the +crimson sash, faded and streaked in its folds, from wear and time, when +Norma and Blanche arrived, escorted by Nesbit Thorne. Little Sawney +had been sitting on the hearth-rug watching her polish the arms, and +offering suggestions, and Pocahontas dispatched him to invite her +guests into the parlor, while she ran up-stairs to remove the traces of +her work. The young people from Shirley often walked over in the +afternoons; the way was short and pleasant, and the brother and sister +usually accompanied them part of the way home. + +Thorne was fond of these informal visits; his interest in Pocahontas +had increased; the chord, instead of merely vibrating, was beginning to +give out faint, sweet notes, like a far-off dream of music, just +stirring toward embodiment. He took a keen artistic pleasure in her, +she satisfied him, and at first he was almost shy of pressing the +acquaintance lest she should fail somewhere. He had been disappointed +so many times, had had so many exquisite bubbles float before him, to +break at a touch and leave only dirty soap-suds. He let himself be +interested slowly, drawing out the pleasure, and getting its full +flavor. Then, when he found that it was true metal and might be worked +at will without fear of baseness, or alloy, he gave himself up to the +pleasure of it. Then, his instinct being always to draw to himself +what he desired, he strove to awaken an interest in her. He was a man +of unusually brilliant attainments, and he spared no pains. He began +to seek her society, and, when in it, to exert himself and appear +always at his best, trying to fascinate her as she was, unconsciously, +beginning to fascinate him. He would entrap her into ventilating her +old-fashioned ideas and prejudices; her primitive notions of life and +conduct. Her straightforwardness, simplicity, absolute truthfulness, +struck him as quaint and delicious; even her romance and almost German +sentiment were attractive to him. He felt like a scientist, who +discovers old truths in an absolutely new development. Early in their +acquaintance he discovered her fondness for old legends, and her +perfect acceptance of, and faith in them; and it was his delight to +beguile her into relating tales of her kindred, and of the olden times +so dear to the hearts of Virginians. Her remarks and comments often +touched, always interested him, although sometimes they well-nigh +convulsed him with amusement. To the mind of the man of the world they +appeared so--almost obsolete. + +Pocahontas was generally willing enough to tell her stories, unless +indeed Norma happened to be present, and then the improvisatrice was +dumb. Pocahontas was not in sympathy with Norma. Norma thought old +stories great rubbish, and did not scruple to show that such was her +opinion, and Pocahontas resented it. One evening, in the beginning of +their acquaintance, the three girls had walked down to the old willows +at the foot of the lawn, and Pocahontas, for the amusement of her +guests, had related the little story connected with them. + +"I think it was all great foolishness," Norma declared. "If she loved +the man, why not marry him at once like a sensible woman? The idea of +making him wait three years, and watch a rubbishing little tree, just +because his brother would have made a scene. What if he did make a +scene? He would soon have submitted to the inevitable, and made +friends. The lady couldn't have cared much for her lover, to be +willing to put up with that driveling probation." + +"She did love him," retorted Pocahontas, with annoyance, "and she +proved it by being willing to sacrifice a little of her happiness to +spare him the bitterness of a quarrel with his own brother. The men +were twins, and they loved one another, until unnatural rivalry pushed +family affection into the background. If the matter had been settled +when both were at white heat, an estrangement would have ensued which +it would have taken years to heal--if it ever _was_ healed. There's no +passion so unyielding as family hate. They were her kinsmen, too, men +of her own blood; she must think of _them_, outside of herself. The +welfare of the man she didn't love must be considered as well as that +of the man she did love--more, if any thing, because she gave him so +much less. How could she come between twin brothers, and turn their +affection to hatred? She knew them both--knew that her own true lover +would hold firm for all the years of his life, so that she could safely +trust him for three. And she knew that the lighter nature would, in +all probability, prove inconstant; and if he left her of his own +freewill, there could be no ill-feeling, and no remorse." + +Norma laughed derisively. "And in this fine self-sacrifice she had no +thought of her lover," quoth she. "_His_ pain was nothing. She +sacrificed him, too." + +"And why not? Surely no man would grudge a paltry three years out of +his whole life's happiness to avoid so dreadful a thing as ill blood +between twin brothers. If _she_ could wait for his sake, _he_ could +wait for hers. A woman must not cheapen herself; if she is worth +winning, she must exact the effort." + +"I think it is a lovely story," Blanche interposed, decidedly. "The +lady behaved beautifully; just exactly as she should have done. A +quarrel between brothers is awful, and between twin brothers would be +awfuler still." + +In her eager partisanship, Blanche's language was more concise than +elegant, but she wanted Pocahontas to know that she sided with her. + +Norma regarded her sister with amusement not unmixed with chagrin. +These new friends were stealing away her follower. Blanche was +becoming emancipated. + +"Any woman who trifles with her happiness, because of a scruple, is a +fool," she repeated, dogmatically. + +Pocahontas held back the angry retort that was burning on the tip of +her tongue, and let the subject drop. Norma was her guest, and, after +all, what did it matter what Norma thought? But after that she +refrained from repeating old stories before her; and of the two +sisters, Blanche became her favorite. + +As she entered the parlor with smiles and words of welcome, Blanche +held out her hands filled with late roses and branches of green holly, +bright with berries. + +"See," she said, "two seasons in one bouquet. The roses are for your +mother. I found them on a bush in a sheltered corner; and as we came +along I made Nesbit cut the holly for me. I never can resist holly. +That tree by your gate is the loveliest thing I have ever seen; just +like those in the store windows at home for Christmas. Only we never +had such a profusion of berries, and I don't think they were as bright. +Do you think the holly we get at home is as bright, Norma?" + +"Oh, yes; it looked always pretty much the same. We got beautiful +holly every Christmas," replied Norma, who did not like Virginia +exalted at the expense of her native place. + +"But not with such masses of berries. Just look at this branch; was +there ever any thing more perfect? Princess, please give me something +to put it in. It's far too pretty to throw away. Can I have that vase +on the piano?" + +Pocahontas smiled assent. She could have holly by the cart-load, but +she liked Blanche's enthusiasm. While the others chatted, Blanche +decked the vase with her treasure; then two others which she found for +herself on a table in the corner. There were still some lovely rich +bits, quite small twigs, left when she had finished, and she once more +clamored for something to put them in. + +Pocahontas, in the midst of an eager discussion with Thorne and Norma, +in which both were arrayed against her, glanced around carelessly. +There was a cup and saucer on a small stand near her, and she picked up +the cup thoughtlessly and held it out to Thorne. Just as their hands +met in the transfer, both of them talking, neither noticing what they +were doing, Berkeley entered suddenly and spoke, causing them to start +and turn. There was a quick exclamation from Pocahontas, a wild clutch +into space from Thorne, and on the floor between them lay the fragile +china in half a dozen pieces. + +Pocahontas bent over them regretfully. It was the cup with the +dreaming Indian maiden on it--the cup from which Jim Byrd had taken his +coffee on that last evening. There were tears in her eyes, but she +kept her head bent so that no one should see them. She would rather +any cup of the set should have come to grief than that one. + +She had brought it into the parlor several days before to show to a +visitor, who wished a design for a hand-screen for a fancy fair, and +had neglected to replace it in the cabinet. She reproached herself for +her carelessness as she laid the fragments on the piano, and then the +superstition flashed across her mind. Could it be an omen? The idea +seemed foolish, and she put it aside. + +"Don't feel badly about it," she said to Thorne, who was humbly +apologetic for his awkwardness, "it was as much my fault as yours; we +neither of us were noticing. Indeed, it's more my fault, for if I +hadn't neglected to put it away, the accident could not have happened. +You must not blame yourself so much." + +"In the actual living present, I'm the culprit," observed Berkeley, +"since my entrance precipitated the catastrophe. I startled you both, +and behold the result! Nobody dreamed of convicting me, and this is +voluntary confession, so I expect you all to respect it; the smallest +unkindness will cause me to leave the room in a torrent of tears." + +Every one laughed, and Pocahontas put the fragments out of sight behind +a pile of music books. She could not put the subject out of her mind +so easily, although she exerted herself to an unusual degree to prevent +her guests from feeling uncomfortable; the superstition rankled. + +As they took leave, Thorne held her hand in a warmer clasp than he had +ever before ventured on, and his voice was really troubled as he said: + +"I can't tell you how worried I am about your beautiful cup. I never +had a small accident trouble me to the same extent before. I feel as +though a serious calamity had befallen. There was no tradition, no +association, I hope, which made the cup of special value, beyond its +beauty, and the fact of its being an heirloom." + +Pocahontas was too truthful for evasion. + +"There were associations of course," she answered gently, "with that +cup as well as with the rest of the china. It has been in the family +so many generations, you know. Don't reproach yourself any more, +please--remember 'twas as much my fault as yours. And broken things +need not remain so," with an upward glance and a bright smile, "they +can be mended. I shall have the cup riveted." + +She would not tell him of the superstition; there was no use in making +him feel worse about the accident than he felt already. She did not +wish him to be uncomfortable, and had gladly assumed an equal share of +blame. It was extremely silly in her to allow her mind to dwell on a +foolish old tradition. How could the breakage of a bit of china, no +matter how precious, presage misfortune? It was ill doing that +entailed ill fortune, not blind chance, or heathen fate. She would +think no more of foolish old portents. + +Still!--she wished the cup had not been broken--wished with all her +heart that it had not been _that_ cup. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Blanche Smith was not at all a clever girl--not like Norma. Norma had +always stood first in her classes, had borne off prizes and medals, but +with Blanche it was otherwise. No amount of coaching ever sufficed to +pull her through ah examination, or to remove her from the middle of +her class. Blanche was a dunce confessedly; she hated books, and the +acquisition of knowledge by labor. If people told her things and took +the trouble to explain them, she remembered them sometimes; sometimes +not. To accomplishments she took as a duck to water--danced +beautifully, was a fair musician, sang with taste and sweetness, and +chattered French with absolute self-confidence and a tolerable accent, +although her rudimentary knowledge of the tongue was of the vaguest. + +At school she had been more popular than her cleverer sister; the girls +affirmed that she was sweeter tempered and more obliging. At home +also, she was the favorite. Her father idolized her, her brothers +domineered over, and petted her; even the mother made an unconscious +difference between the girls; she admired Norma more--was prouder of +her, but she depended upon Blanche. Norma saw the difference, and +sometimes it vexed her, but generally she was indifferent to it. Her +people did not understand her; she was not like them; when barn-door +fowls unwittingly hatched eaglets, it was natural that the phenomenon +should be beyond their comprehension, and that their ignorance should +prefer the tamer members of their brood. Not that Norma actually +instituted such comparison, and deliberately set herself above her +kindred; she simply acted upon the hypothesis unconsciously, and when +the warmest of the family affection settled around Blanche, felt sure +that it was due to natural difference, and could be no fault of hers. + +Little Blanche, in her deep content with her new surroundings, wondered +how she could ever have been so besotted as to object to the move. The +place, the people, the mode of life were all delicious to her, and for +the family at Lanarth, her enthusiasm was touching. Mrs. Mason was +just her idea of "Mrs. Washington, or Cornelia, or Lady de +Bourgainville," she explained to Norma, mixing history and fiction, as +usual, and was laughed at for her pains. + +Pocahontas never laughed at her--at least not offensively, or in a way +to make her feel her ignorance. She thought sometimes that her foolish +society was preferred by her new friend to that of her clever sister; +certainly the quaint old tales which Pocahontas poured unreservedly +into her delighted ears were never told to Norma. What impression lay +in the girl's mind of handsome Berkeley Mason, had best remain +uncanvassed. It is ill work, violating feminine sanctuaries unless the +need be urgent; an empty coat-sleeve, carelessly carried, is a powerful +agent for converting a man into a hero. + +Christmas, the grand high festival of the year, was approaching, and +all the community was stirred with deep desire for its worthy +celebration. Sociability ceased, or at best was sustained in limp, +half-hearted fashion by the men. The ladies had other things to think +of; for on them rested the sole responsibility of the Christmas +preparations--the providing of copious lodging for expected guests, the +bedecking of rooms with evergreens and holly, the absorption of +store-room and kitchen, the never-ending consultations with the +cook--all the wonderful machinations, the deep mysteries and +incantations, which would result in glittering hospitality later on. +Realizing this, they suffered lesser matters to pass unheeded, caring +naught for social converse, intellectual pleasures, or intelligence of +church or state. Women might elope, men embezzle, dynasties fall, +ministries change, or public faith be broken, and they viewed the +result, if indeed they noted it, with absolute composure. But let eggs +be unattainable, jellies become murky, the fruit in cake or pudding +sink hopelessly to the bottom, and Rachel weeping for her children +could not have made more wild acclaim. + +At Lanarth, the week of preparation (good old Virginia housekeepers +always allowed a week at least, and Mrs. Mason adhered to the +time-honored custom) passed busily. Every thing turned out unusually +well, and the store-room was a picture. Jellies, in slender glasses, +glittered in exquisite amber perfection, or glowed warmly crimson, with +points of brighter hue where the sun fell on them. Heaps of +old-fashioned "snowballs" hid golden hearts under a pure white +frosting, and cakes, baked in fantastic shapes, like Turks' heads and +fluted melons, were rich, warm, brown, or white and gleaming as +Christmas snow. The pastry showed all shades from palest buff to +tender delicate brown, and for depth of tone there were their rich +interiors of dark mincemeat and golden custards. Of the pleasures of +this beautiful world not the least is the sight of beautiful food. + +And it was Christmas eve. + +The shadows were gathering, and the sun sending in his resignation to +the night, when Pocahontas, tying on her pretty scarlet hood and +wrappings, armed herself with a small basket of corn, and proceeded to +the poultry yard to house her turkeys for the night. They usually +roosted in an old catalpa tree near the back gate, earlier in the +season; but as Christmas approached Pocahontas found it expedient to +turn the key upon them, since leaving them out caused weaker brothers +to offend. As she passed the kitchen door she called to little Sawney, +whose affection for his grandmother increased at Christmas, to come out +and help her. + +The little fellow had that morning been invested by a doting parent +with a "pa'r o' sto' boots" purchased entirely with reference to the +requirements of the future. They were many sizes too large for him: +the legs adorned with flaming scarlet tops, reached nearly to his +middle; they flopped up and down at every step, and evinced an evil +propensity for wabbling, and bringing their owner with sorrow to the +ground. They were hard-natured, stiff-soled, uncompromising--but! they +were _boots_!--"sto' boots, whar cos' money!"--and Sawney's cup of +bliss was full. + +Any one who has experience in the ways and wiles of the domestic +treasure, must be aware of the painful lack of consideration sometimes +evinced by turkeys in this apparently simple matter of allowing +themselves to be housed. Some evenings, they march straight into their +apartment with the directness and precision of soldiers filing into +barracks; on others the very Prince of Darkness, backed by the three +Fates and the three Furies, apparently takes possession of the +perverse, shallow-pated birds. They wander backward and forward, with +an air of vacancy as though they knew not what to do; they pass and +repass the yawning portal of the turkey house, with heads erect and +eyes fixed on futurity, not only as if they did not see the door, but +actually as if there were no door there to see. And when the maddened +driver, wrought to desperation, hurls into their midst a stick or +stone, hoping fervently and vengefully that it may break a neck or a +leg, they leap nimbly into the air with "put-putterings" of surprise +and rebuke, and then advance cautiously upon the missile and examine it. + +The Lanarth turkeys were behaving in just this reprehensible manner, +and Pocahontas was working herself into a frenzy over them. Three +times she engineered the flock successfully up to the open door, and +three times the same old brown hen advanced, peered cautiously into the +house, started tragically aside as though she beheld some evil thing, +and produced a panic and a stampede. + +"You miserable wretch!" exclaimed Pocahontas, hurling her empty basket +impotently at the dusky author of her woe, "I could kill you! Shoo! +shoo! Sawney, why don't you help me? Head them! Run round them! +Shoo! shoo! you abominable creatures!" + +Sawney essayed to obey, grasping the straps of his boots, and lifting +his feet very high. + +"Take them off and run," commanded Pocahontas. But Sawney would as +soon have parted with his skin. "I dwine ter run," he responded, and +gripped his boots valiantly. It was of no use. Sawney had gotten too +much boot for his money, and if walking in them was difficult, running +was impossible. He held on to them bravely, but that only impeded +progress further; the faithless cowhides wabbled, twisted, and finally +landed him sprawling on his back in the middle of the flock, which +promptly retired to distant parts of the poultry yard, "puttering" and +dodging. + +"Sawney proves a broken reed, as usual," called a pleasant voice from +somewhere in the background; "here, let me help you," and Nesbit Thorne +leaped over the fence, and advanced, gun in hand, to the rescue. + +"It's the fault of his 'sto' boots,'" Pocahontas explained, laughing, +as she extended her hand. "Sawney's intentions were honorable enough. +I shall be glad of your assistance--as usual," with a merry glance, +"for these aggravating birds are shattering my nerves, and ruining my +temper." + +Then, together, the pair pursued the unruly fowls, and pressed upon +them and buffeted them, until the turkeys were right glad to defy the +vision of the old brown sensationalist, and take refuge in their house. +Pocahontas closed the door with a sharp bang almost upon the tail of +the hindmost one, locked it, and then turned cordially to her companion +and invited him to remain and take tea with them. + +Thorne glanced down at his splashed boots and corduroys. "I'm scarcely +in trim for a lady's tea table," he said, smiling, "you must excuse me, +and let me come some other time. I met your brother on the low grounds +as I came up. I've been shooting over his land, and called to leave +your mother a few birds." + +"Had you good sport?" inquired Pocahontas, with interest, watching him +empty the pockets of his shooting-coat on the top of an adjacent +chicken-coop, and admiring the soft shades, and exquisite markings of +the plumage of the dead birds. + +"Here's old 'bur-rabbit,'" said Thorne, reaching his hand behind his +back, and drawing out the pretty brown beast by the legs. "I knocked +him over just below your garden fence in a little patch of briers. It +was a pretty shot; see, right through the head. I hate to mangle my +game. I'd pretty fair sport; the birds are a little wild, though, and +I had no dog. I lost a fine duck--a canvas-back, this afternoon, by +its falling into deep water. I must send North for a brace of good +dogs." + +"That isn't necessary," said Pocahontas, touching the birds gently, and +stroking their soft feathers. "Berke and Royall both have good dogs, +trained retrievers, and used to the country. Strange dogs don't do so +well over unaccustomed ground. It's a shame that you had no dog, and +dreadfully neglectful of the boys not to have noticed. No, no!" as +Thorne moved away from the coop, "you must not leave all those; you +have none for yourself, and you'll be disgraced as a sportsman if you +go home empty-handed. They won't believe you've killed a thing. We +_never_ do, when our men come home with nothing to show. Jim Byrd +never dared face Nina, or me, without, at least, half a dozen birds." + +"Who is Jim Byrd?" demanded Thorne quickly. "I never heard you mention +him before." + +"Haven't you?" regarding him with great surprise. "Well that is +curious, for he is one of our oldest, dearest friends, Berke's and +mine. A year ago I couldn't have imagined life possible without Jim's +dear old face near us. He formerly lived at Shirley; it was the Byrd +patrimony for generations. His sisters were the closest girl-friends +Grace and I ever had, and for years the two families were as one. +There were financial troubles handed down from father to son, growing +always greater; the old place had finally to be sold, and your uncle +bought it. Jim is in Mexico now, engineering, and the girls are all +married. I wonder you have never heard me mention Jim. I think, and +speak of him frequently. We all do." + +So perfectly unembarrassed was the girl's manner, that despite a faint +wistfulness discernible in her face, Thorne put aside the half-thought +formulated in his brain by the familiar mention of Jim Byrd's name. He +allowed himself to be persuaded to re-pocket part of the game, +particularly a brace of ducks, which the soul of the general loved. As +he rose from his seat on the chicken-coop, Pocahontas noticed the +handsome gun beside him, and leaning forward with a woman's instinctive +desire to handle dangerous things, she took it in her hands with an +exclamation of admiration. + +"Is it loaded?" she inquired, raising it to her shoulder, and laying +her finger lightly on the trigger. + +"Yes," Thorne answered, drawing nearer, "take care, Miss Mason. It +always makes me nervous to see a gun in a woman's hands. Don't pull +the trigger, please; the charge is heavy and the recoil will hurt you." + +But the warning came too late; intentionally, or unintentionally, she +_did_ pull the trigger, and the gun carelessly held, recoiled sharply, +striking against her shoulder with such force that she staggered and +would have fallen, if Thorne had not caught her in his arms. The gun +slipped to the ground, but fortunately did not discharge the second +barrel. + +Thorne regarded the white face upon his breast with trepidation, amazed +even amid his anxiety at the fierce pang that shot through his heart at +the sight of its pallor. Suppose she should be seriously hurt! Brute +that he had been, not to have taken better care of her. Fool! _fool_! +to have let her touch that accursed gun! His hand trembled as he +loosened her cloak, and passed it tenderly over her shoulder. +Dislocated? No; such cruel harm had not befallen her: a bruise, a +little stiffness was the worst in store. A passionate relief, +bewildering in its intensity, thrilled through him; his dark cheek +rivaled hers in pallor; his eyes glowed. + +Then her lids quivered, the gray eyes unclosed, and the color flushed +back warmly, covering cheek and brow and neck with a mighty surge of +crimson. With a quick effort, Pocahontas disengaged herself from his +arms, and leaned against the fence, a few steps away from him. +Struggling for self-mastery, Thorne made his anxious inquiries, +striving by a fierce exercise of will to still his bounding pulses, and +banish from his eyes the expression he felt glowing within them. And +Pocahontas, with her paleness in force again, replied to his inquiries +with tremulous but determined lightness, putting aside his self +reproaches, and assuming the blame with eager incoherence. She made a +terrible mess of it, but Thorne was past all nicety of observation; his +only thought, now that he was assured of her safety, was to get himself +away without further betrayal of his feelings. His mind was in a +tumult, and his heart rose up and choked him. For a moment he held the +small, tremulous fingers in a strong, warm clasp, then with a quick +"good-night" relinquished them, sprang over the fence and walked +rapidly away in the direction of Shirley. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Walking home in the still dusk of the winter gloaming, Thorne found +himself compelled at last to look the situation in the face without +disguise or subterfuge; to "take stock" of it all, as it were, and ask +himself what should be the result. He had lingered in Virginia, +lengthening his stay from week to week, because the old world +quaintness of the people, the freshness and yet antiquity of thought +prevalent among them, charmed him, pleased the aesthetic side of his +nature, as the softness of their voices pleased his ear, and the +suavity of their manners, his taste. He was tired to death of the old +routine, weary beyond expression of the beaten track, of the sameness +of the old treadmill of thought. Here he had found variety. + +For somewhat the same reason he had sought Pocahontas, charily at +first, dreading disappointment, but finally, as his interest deepened, +without reserve. She was different from other women, more candid, less +impressible. He could not discover what she thought of him, beyond her +surface interest in his talents and conversation. She piqued and +stimulated him; in her presence he exerted himself and appeared at his +best, which is always pleasant to a man. Even old thoughts, and +hackneyed theories donned new apparel when about to be presented to her +notice. + +He had played with fire, and was forced now to admit that the fate of +the reckless had overtaken him. He loved her. The truth had been +dawning on his mind for weeks past, but he had put it aside, willfully +blinding himself because of his contentment with the present. Now, +self delusion was no longer possible; the report of his gun had blown +away the last rays of it forever. When Pocahontas lay well-nigh +senseless in his arms, when her fair face rested on his breast and her +breath touched his cheek, he knew, and acknowledged to himself that he +loved her with a passionate intensity such as in all his careless, +self-indulgent life he had never before felt for a woman. + +And he had no right to love her; he was a married man. + +When this idea flashed across his mind it almost stunned him. He had +been free in heart and mind so long that he had ceased to remember that +he was bound in fact. The substance had so withdrawn itself into the +background of his life that he had forgotten that the shadow still +rested on him. He was free, and he was bound. Thorne turned the idea +over in his mind, as one turns a once familiar thing that has grown +strange from being hidden long from sight. Was he a married +man?--undoubtedly--the idea appalled him. + +Two years had passed since the separation and there had been no +divorce. Thorne had thought the matter out at the time, as a man must, +and had decided to wait, and to let any initial steps be taken by his +wife. He had no love left for her, and he realized with grim intensity +that their marriage had been a terrible mistake, but there was +sufficient chivalry if his nature to make him feel that the mother of +his child had claims upon him--to make him willing, for the child's +sake, to leave her the protection of his home and name as long as she +cared to keep it. Then, too, the habit of thought in his family, and +all his early influences were against divorce. The idea had not +presented itself spontaneously, as the natural solution of his domestic +difficulties; he had been obliged to familiarize himself with it. His +family had been Catholics for generations, his mother had become one on +her marriage, and had been ardent and devout, as is usual with +proselytes. Thorne was not a religious man himself, but he respected +religion, and in an abstract way considered it a beautiful and holy +thing. He had never thought of it with any reference to his own life, +but it made a halo around the memory of his mother. Her views had +influenced him in his decision in the matter of a divorce. The world +had given him credit for religious scruples of his own, but the world +had done him more than justice; he was only haunted by the ghosts of +his mother's scruples. + +Thorne leaned on the fence of the field where he had first seen +Pocahontas, and went over his former experience of love. What a +miserable thing it had been, at best! How feverish, vapory and +unsatisfying! What a wretched fiasco his marriage had proved! And yet +he had loved his wife! Her beauty was of a type that insures its +possessor love of a certain sort--not the best, but strong enough to +stand the wear and tear of well-to-do existence, if only it is +returned. If Ethel had loved him, Thorne would have held to his lot, +and munched his husks, if not with relish, certainly with decency and +endurance. But Ethel did not love him. + +Their marriage, from Ethel's standpoint, had been mercantile; for his +wealth and position, she had willingly bartered her youth and beauty, +and if he would have been content with face value, she would have been +content. Why should people trouble the depths of life when the surface +was so pleasant and satisfying? She liked Thorne well enough, but his +ceaseless craving for congeniality, deep affection, community of +interest, and the like, wearied, bored and baffled her. Why should +they care for the same things, cultivate similar tastes, have +corresponding aspirations? If they differed in thought and life and +expression, let them differ--it was of no consequence. She found her +husband's exactions tiresome. He had her birthright, she had his +pottage; let the matter end there, and each be satisfied. + +But Thorne was _not_ satisfied. He had married a transcendently +beautiful woman, but he had no wife. Half the men of his acquaintance +envied him, but he did not rejoice, nor plume himself. He wanted his +wife to lean on him, to clothe the strength of his manhood with the +grace of her womanhood--and his wife showed herself not only capable of +standing alone, but of pushing him away with both hands. His mood +underwent many changes, and finally he let her go, with some disgust, +and a deep inward curse at his past folly. It was not a pleasant +retrospect. + +Night had fallen; the air was still and brooding; across the sky +scudded ragged masses of clouds, advanced guard of the storm that was +mustering along the horizon; everywhere there was a feeling that +foreboded snow. In the sky, few stars were visible, and those +glimmered with a cold, wan light; at the zenith a solitary planet +burned steadfastly. The road stretched away into the night; it was +dark under the trees beside the fence; away in the distance the echo of +footsteps sounded. + +Thorne thought of Pocahontas. His face softened, and his eyes shone +tenderly. How true she was, how thorough and noble. Her pure face and +fearless gray eyes rose before him; with the love of such a woman to +bless him, her hand in his, her influence surrounding him, to what +might not a man aspire! There were no insincerities, no half-truths, +no wheels within wheels, such as Ethel delighted in, about this other +woman. Even her occasional fits of impatience and temper were indulged +in frankly--a sudden flurry of tempest and then the bright, warm +sunshine; no long-continued murkiness, and heavy sodden depression for +hours and days. + +Did she love him? As he asked himself the question, Thorne's heart +bounded, and the blood coursed hotly through his veins. He had tried +to make her love him--had he succeeded? Thorne was no fatuous fool, +blinded by his own vanity, but his power over women had been often +tried, fully proven, and he had confidence in himself. Once only had +he failed of securing the love he sought, and it was the memory of that +failure which made him pause and question now. He was not sure. She +liked him, was pleasant and gracious, but he had seen her so to other +men. Never until this evening had she changed color at his touch. She +liked him--and Thorne felt within him a fierce desire to change her +passivity of regard into wild activity of passion. He could do it. +That tide of crimson, a vague terror and awakening in the gray eyes, as +they met his gaze on re-opening to consciousness, had shown him a tiny +cleft which his hand might broaden, until it should flood their two +lives with the light of love. + +The echo of the footsteps deepened, merged into actual sound, drew +nearer. Thorne, in the deep obscurity of the trees, listened, moving +near to the dusky, trunk of an old magnolia; he was in no mood for +passing civilities, and in this friendly country all wayfarers +exchanged greetings. In the sound of the advancing steps, he could +distinguish an unmistakable shuffle which proclaimed race--two negroes +returning from the little village, beyond Shirley, whither they had +gone to make Christmas purchases. They walked by the light of a +flaring pine knot, which was encouraged to burn by being swung around +violently from time to time; it lighted the men's dark faces, and +reflected itself in intermittent flashes on the sides of a bright tin +bucket which the younger man carried, but it intensified the gloom +around them. Both had on their backs bags filled with lumpy things, +like bundles. They were talking cheerfully, and the sound of their +rough voices and guttural laughter reached Thorne before the men +themselves came abreast of his position. The negro with the bucket was +relating an anecdote. Thorne caught part of it. + +"Yes, sar," he was saying, "dat was de fust ov it. Mars Jim, he clumb +right spang up to de tip-top de tree, an' de ice was cracklin', an' +slippin', an' rattlin' down like broke up lamp chimblys. De little +gals was 'pon de groun' watchin' him, an' hollerin' an' wringin' deir +han's. I was loadin' de ox-cart wid pine kindlin's back in de woods, +an' when I hearn de chil'en hollerin', I came runnin' to see what was +de matter wid 'em." + +"What he clumb arter?" questioned the other negro; "hit's mighty +dangersome gittin' up trees when dey got sleet 'pon 'em." + +"Mighty dangersome," acquiesced the narrator, "dat's what I 'lowed ter +myse'f when I seed him. He was arter a lump o' dat green truck wid +white berries 'pon it--mizzletoe, dey calls its name. When I got dar, +he was comin' down de tree holdin' it by de stem wid he teef. He +wouldn't fling it down, kase he's feard he'd spile de berries. Time he +totch de groun' good, Miss Grace, she hauled off, she did, an' smacked +his jaws ez hard ez she could stave, an' axed him how _dar'ed_ he skeer +'em like dat? An' Mars Jim, he larfed out loud, and said: 'Princess +wanted it,' an' den he put de truck he'd resked his nake ter git in +Miss Pocahontas's arms, an' she hugged it up tight, an' went long to de +house cryin'." + +Thorne moved involuntarily, and the gun in his hand struck against the +trunk of the tree behind which he stood. The negroes paused and +glanced around alertly, the man with the torch swinging it backward and +forward, with a muttered "What's dat?" Nothing of any consequence; a +bird, or a rabbit, perhaps--nothing worth investigation. The man with +the bucket set his burden on the ground, and opened and shut his hand +rapidly several times. The wire of the handle had cramped his fingers. +Both men transferred their bags from the right shoulder to the left, +and leaned against the tree stems to rest themselves a moment. + +The elder man resumed the subject. + +"Love her! Lord-er-mussy 'pon me! Jim Byrd was fa'rly _foolish_ wid +love. De groun' warn't fitten fur Miss Pocahontas ter set her foots +'pon in his notion; he'd er liked ter spread _hissef_ down to save her +slippers. T'want no question 'bout lovin' wid Mars Jim!" + +"But he gone away," objected the torch-bearer. "I reckon Miss +Pocahontas done kick him; dat how come he lef. What he doin' in +Nexican ef he kin get what he want here? He _gone_!" + +"_Dat_ ain't nothin'. He was bleeged ter go out yander ter git money +ter buy back de old place. Money mighty plentiful out dar, Aunt Vi'let +say. Gwine way ain't nothin' ter a _man_; he kin come back 'gin. I +went 'way ter Richmond onct myse'f ter rake up money 'nouf ter buy one +mule, an' rent er scrop o' lan', so ez I could marry Sarah. Mars Jim's +comin' back; las' word he sed ter Aunt Vi'let, was _dat_. Miss +Pocahontas ain't kick him n'other. What she gwine kick him fur? Mars +Jim's er likely man, an' all de ginnerashuns o' de Byrds an' Masons bin +marryin' one n'other ever sence Virginny war er settle_mint_. My ole +gran'daddy, whar war ole Mr. Dabney Byrd's kyar'ege driver, allus +sed--Lord, a-mussy! what DAT!!" + +The speaker paused with his mouth open and a chilly sensation about the +back, as though a lump of ice were traveling down his spine. A sound, +as of scriptural denunciation, low, but intense, had caught his ear. A +bat, circling low, had grazed Thorne's face and caused him to throw up +his hand with an impatient oath. The wisdom of the defunct "kyar'ege +driver" was overwhelmed in the flood of perturbation which seized his +descendant. The man swung his torch around nervously and peered into +the darkness, conscious of a distrust of his surroundings that amounted +to positive pain. The other negro said nothing; but addressed himself +to the adjustment of his burden in the manner least likely to impede +retreat. + +Among the colored folks this portion of the road enjoyed an evil +reputation, particularly after nightfall, for in a field near by there +was an ancient graveyard, and the rumor went, that the denizens thereof +were of a specially unruly, not to say malicious spirit, and found pure +delight in ambuscades along the road side, and in sallies upon +unsuspecting travelers with results too painful for description. + +"Haunts was mighty rank 'bout dar," the negroes said, and after sundown +that part of the road was destitute of attractions. The graveyard had +not been used for many years; but that only made the danger greater, +for ghosts, grown bold with long immunity of office, were held capable +of deeper malignity, than would be within the range of ghosts oppressed +with the modesty of debutants. The fact that the occupants of the +place had, in life, been of their own race, inspired the negroes with +no feeling of kinship or confidence. They were earnestly afraid of all +spirits, be they white, black, or red; but most of all of black ones, +because they seemed most in league with the devil. + +When, therefore, the light of the flickering pine torch fell obliquely +on Thorne's dark figure and caught a gleam from the polished mountings +of his gun, and another from the brass of the cartridge belt, which to +the terrified darkeys looked like a cincture of fire, they became +possessed with the idea that the most malevolent of all the spirits, +perhaps the devil himself, was upon them. Calling on their Maker with +more urgence than they ever did at "pray'r meetin'," they grabbed up +their belongings and addressed themselves to flight. The bags, +flopping up and down on their backs, held them to their speed, by +corporeal reminder of what they had to lose if the devil should +overtake them, and the molasses in the bucket slopped over the sides +and sweetened the dust at every jump. The bucket top had bounced off +in the first burst and sped down the road before them, and the owner, +feeling that he had no time to lose, never dreamed of stopping to look +for it. Every now and then the bucket banged against his leg causing +him to feel that the evil one might be gaining, and to yell "Oh, Lawdy! +Oh, Lawdy!!" at the top of his lungs. The torch-bearer had flung away +his light, thinking to elude the devil in the darkness, and all his +soul was in his heels. + +Thorne laughed a little, in a mirthless fashion; but he was too +miserable to be amused. While the men talked, black jealousy had crept +around the old magnolia and linked arms with him. Twice in the same +evening this name had crossed him. Who the devil _was_ this Jim Byrd? +These men had spoken of him as the avowed lover of Pocahontas, the man +she would eventually marry. The girl herself had admitted him to be a +dear and valued friend--a friend so dear that his going had left a +blank in her life. The power he had but now felt to be his own, +suddenly appeared to be slipping into other hands. Another sickle was +sharpening for the harvest; other eyes had recognized the promise of +the golden grain; other hands were ready to garner the rich sheaves. + +Thorne's heart grew hot; angry blood surged from it and inflamed his +system; every nerve tingled; his eyes glowed, and his fingers tightened +on the barrel of the gun beside him. His consciousness of antagonism +grew so intense that it seemed to annihilate space and materialize his +distant rival into an actual presence; his feeling was that which +animates brutes when they lock horns, or fly at each other's throats; +and, could the emotional force which swayed his soul have been +converted into physical force and projected through space, Jim would +never have seen the light of another day. + +Poor Thorne! If suffering may be pleaded in extenuation of moods whose +cause is mingled love and pain, he certainly was not without excuse. +Imagination, wounded by jealousy, leaped forward into the future and +ranged amid possibilities that made him quiver--noble, beautiful +possibilities, filled with joy and light and sweetness--and filled for +his rival--not for him. As in a mirror he beheld his love in his +rival's arms, resting on his bosom, as an hour ago she had rested on +his own; only in this man's embrace, he pictured her glowing, sentient, +responsive to look and caress; not cold, lifeless and inanimate. +Should this thing be? No! a thousand times no! Must he always have a +stone for bread? Must his garners always stand empty while other men's +overflowed with corn? + +Deeply the man cursed his past folly; bitterly he anathematized the +weakness which had allowed shadowy scruples and a too fastidious taste +to rule his judgment in the matter of a divorce. He would wait no +longer; he would break at once and forever the frail fetter that still +bound him to a union from which all reality, all sanctity had fled. He +would be free in fact, as he was in heart and thought, to pit his +strength against that of his rival. This prize should not slip from +his grasp uncontested. No man should approach the shrine unchallenged. + +The wind rose, sighing fitfully; the clouds gathered and formed an army +which stormed the zenith and threatened to overwhelm the pure light of +the planet. The lesser stars vanished, two or three falling in their +haste and losing themselves forever in infinity. The night thickened; +snow began to fall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Christmas festivities were to close on +New Year's Eve with a grand ball at Shirley. +It was to be a sumptuous affair with unlimited +Chinese lanterns, handsome decorations, a +magnificent supper, and a band from Washington. +The Smiths were going to requite the neighborhood's +hospitality with the beating of drums, the +clashing of cymbals, and the flowing of +champagne. This cordial friendly people had +welcomed them kindly, and must have their courtesy +returned in fitting style. Mrs. Smith suggested a +simpler entertainment, fearing contrast, and any +appearance of ostentation, but the general gauged +his neighbors better. They were at once too well +bred, and too self-satisfied for any idea of +comparison to occur to them. They would eat his +fruit-cake, or make him welcome to their +corn-bread with the same hearty unconcern. His +wealth, and their own poverty troubled them +equally little; they were abstract facts with +which hospitality had nothing to do. But in their +way they were proud; having given their best +without grudge or stint, they would expect his +best in return, and the general was determined +that they should have it. The risk of offense lay +in simplicity, not grandeur. + +Mrs. Royall Garnett came over to Lanarth a day +or so before the grand event, bearing her family +in her train, to assist in the weighty matter of a +suitable toilet for Pocahontas. She was a tall, +handsome woman, with a noble bearing, and great +decision of character; and on most matters--notably +those pertaining to the sacred mysteries +of the wardrobe, her word with her family was +law. Grace's taste was admitted to be perfect. + +After an exhaustive discussion of the subject, at +which both Berke and Royall ignorantly and +gratuitously assisted, and were flouted for their +pains, it was irrevocably decided that Pocahontas +should appear in pure white unrelieved by a +single dash of color. + +"She looks cheap and common in any thing but +dead black, or pure white, at a party," pronounced +Grace with sisterly frankness, and of course that +settled the matter, although Mrs. Mason did +venture on the modest protest that it would look +"bride-like and unusual." + +"I want her to look unusual," declared Grace; +"to make her so, is at present the object of my +being. I shall hesitate at nothing short of cutting +off her nose to secure that desirable result. To +be admired, a woman must stand out distinctly +from the throng; and I've set my heart on +Princess's being the belle of the ball. Have you +plenty of flowers, dear? As flowers are to be +your sole garniture, you must have a profusion. +I can't tolerate skimpy, rubbishing bouquets." + +"None at all, Grace," confessed Pocahontas, +ruefully, "except a single calla. I cut my last +white rosebuds and camellias to send to Nina +Byrd Marion the very day before I heard about +the Shirley ball. Isn't it provoking?" + +"Then somebody must get you some," Grace +responded promptly, pausing in her preparations, +and regarding her sister with the air of an autocrat; +"if the men are not lost to all sense of honor and +decency, you'll have plenty. Of course you _must_ +have plenty. If only they will have sufficient +intellect to select white ones! But they won't. +I'd better instruct Roy and Berkeley at once." + +On the morning of the ball, Berkeley entered +his mother's room, where the three ladies sat in +solemn conclave regarding with discontent a +waiter full of colored flowers which a thoughtful +neighbor had just sent over to Pocahontas. He +held in his hand a good-sized box which he +deposited in his sister's lap with the remark: + +"Look, Princess! Here's a New Year's gift +just come for you. I don't know the writing. I +wonder what it is!" + +"A subtle aroma suggests--fruit," hazarded +Grace, sniffing curiously. + +"Perhaps flowers," suggests Mrs. Mason, who +that morning was a woman with one idea. + +Pocahontas wrestled with the cords, unfolded +the wrappers, and lifted the cover. Then she +uttered a long drawn "oh" of satisfaction. + +"What is it?" demanded the others with lively impatience. + +Pocahontas lifted a card and turned it in her +hand, and a smile broke over her face as she +answered: "Flowers; from Jim Byrd." + +Then she removed the damp moss and cotton, +and lifted spray after spray of beautiful snowy +jasmin--Cape Jasmin, pure and powerful, and +starry wreaths of the more delicate Catalonian. +Only white flowers--all jasmin, Jim's favorite +flower; and with them were tropical ferns and +grasses. As she held the exquisite blossoms in +her hands and inhaled their rich perfume, the girl +was conscious that when her old friend penned +the order for the fragrant gift, his heart had been +full of home, and of the evening beside the river +when she had worn his flowers in hair and dress, +and had bidden him farewell. + +"How beautiful they are!" exclaimed Grace, +excitedly, "and just in time for to-night. To +think of the way I've made that wretched +husband of mine charge through the country since +day-break, this morning, in pursuit of white +flowers, and here they come like a fairy story. It was +very nice of Jim. I'd no idea there was so poetical +an impulse in the old fellow; as the selection +of these flowers appears to indicate." + +"You don't appreciate Jim, Grace. You do +him injustice. If thought and care and love for +others, combined with tenderness, and delight +in giving pleasure, constitutes poetical impulses, +then Jim Byrd is the noblest poet we are +likely ever to meet." Pocahontas spoke warmly, +the color flushing to her cheeks, the light +coming to her eyes. Poor Jim!--so far away. +Was it disloyal to her old friend to go that +night to dance among strangers in the rooms +that had been his,--that were full of associations +connected with him? At all events, no flowers +would she wear save his; no other ornaments of +any kind. It would seem, then, as though he +participated in her pleasure; rejoiced in her joy. +Jim loved always to see her happy. For reasons +of their own, the two elder ladies had decided on +remaining at home, so that Pocahontas repaired +to the ball in male custody alone. Blanche, who +was on the watch for the Lanarth party, came +forward the instant of their arrival, accompanied +by her father, to welcome them, and to bear +Pocahontas away to the upper regions to warm +herself and remove her wrappings. The rooms +were a little chill, she explained, with a shiver, +in spite of the splendid fires the general had +kept roaring in them all day. Pocahontas must +remain where she was and warm herself +thoroughly, and she would send one of the boys for +her presently. And after a little girlish gossip +and mutual admiration of each others' appearance, +the small maiden tripped away to her duties below. + +Soon there was a knock at the door, and +Pocahontas, catching up fan, bouquet and handkerchief, +opened it and stepped into the hall. Nesbit +Thorne, slender and distinguished looking, was +awaiting her, Blanche having encountered and +dispatched him immediately on her return to the +parlors. As the girl stood an instant framed by +the open door, thrown into relief by the soft +glowing background of the warmly lighted room, +Thorne's heart swelled with mingled gladness and +impatience. Joy in the pure perfection of her +beauty; impatience at the restraint circumstances +forced him still to put upon his love. + +At the foot of the stairs they were pounced +upon by Percival, who had selected that coigne of +vantage as least likely to attract his mother's +attention, there to lay in wait for the cards of the +unwary. He had been strictly forbidden to +importune grown young ladies for dances unless +they happened to be wall-flowers, and the injunction +lay heavy on his soul. "I _will_ ask girls other +men ask," he muttered, darkly, "I hate putting +up with refuse and leavings. I'm going to ask +the ones I want to ask," and he intrenched +himself beside the stairway with intent to black-mail +such girls as he should fancy. + +Pocahontas, who had a natural affinity for boys, +and a great fondness for Percival, yielded to his +demand readily enough, surrendering her card to +him in gay defiance of Thorne's outspoken +reprobation, and laughing mischievously as the boy +scrawled his name triumphantly opposite a waltz. + +"B.M.! Who's B.M., Miss Princess?" he +questioned, as he dextrously avoided Thorne's +extended hand, and placed the card in Pocahontas's. + +"You've got him down just above me, and you +wrote it yourself. Who is he? Benevolent +Missionary? Brother Mason?" + +"Exactly!" she answered, smiling, and watching +Thorne scribble his name in several places on +her card. "It is Berkeley. The Byrd girls and I +always saved a waltz for him to prevent his feeling +left out. He don't like to ask girls generally; +his one arm makes it look awkward, and he knows +they wouldn't like to refuse, because they all feel +sorry for him. _We_ put a hand on each shoulder, +and don't care how it looks. Berke is adroit, and +manages quite nicely. Often, too, it's an +advantage to have a dance you can dispose of later +on, so I continue to put the initials, although +Berke seldom dances now. He liked waltzing +with the Byrd girls best." + +"You were very intimate with the Byrds, I +think you said," Thorne remarked idly, bowing +to an acquaintance as he spoke. + +"Very intimate. See what came to me this +morning; all these exquisite flowers, just when I +needed them for to-night. Roy searched the +neighborhood through for white flowers without +success, and then these came. Aren't they +beautiful?" And she lifted her bouquet toward his face. + +"Extremely beautiful!" he assented, bending +his head to inhale their fragrance. "It was very +kind and thoughtful of your friends to send them. +I suppose, from the connection, that they are a +Byrd offering." + +Pocahontas laughed softly. "Yes," she said, +"but they did not come from Belle, or Nina, and +Susie is in California. Jim ordered them for me. +I am so pleased." + +Thorne instantly raised his head and stiffened +his back as though the delicate perfume were +some noxious poison, and moved on with her +toward the parlors in silence. + +"I wish you knew Jim, Mr. Thorne," pursued +the happy voice at his side; "he's such a good +fellow, so noble, generous, and unselfish; we're all +so fond of Jim. I wish he were here to-night to +tread a measure with me in the old rooms. You +would be sure to fraternize with Jim. You could +not help liking him." + +Thorne drew in his lips ominously. He could +help liking Jim Byrd well enough, and felt not +the faintest desire for either his presence or his +friendship. The intervention of a woman with +whom two men are in love has never yet established +amity between them; the very suggestion +of such a thing on her lips is sufficient to cause +an irruption of hatred, malice and all unkindness. + +Moreover, Thorne was in a fury with himself. +He had thought of sending for flowers for +Pocahontas at the same time he dispatched the order +to the Richmond florist for his aunt. He had +feverishly longed to do it, and had pondered the +matter fully half an hour before deciding that he +had better not. He had not scrupled to pay +Pocahontas attentions _before_ he realized that he +was in love with her, but that fact, once established +in his mind, placed her in a different +position in regard to him. + +She was no longer the woman he wished to +draw into a flirtation _pour passer le temps_; she was +the woman he wished to marry--was determined +to marry, if possible. The instinct, common to +every manly man, to hold in peculiar respect the +woman whom he wishes to make his wife, led +Thorne to feel that, until he should be free from +the fetter that bound him, he should abstain from +paying Pocahontas marked attention; to feel that +she would have cause of complaint against him if +he did not abstain. + +So he argued the case in cold blood; but now +his blood was boiling and he dubbed himself fool +in language concise and forcible. See what had +come of his self-denial? Another man had done +what he had left undone; another hand had laid +in hers the fragrant offering it should have been +his to bestow. Fool that he had been, to +stand aside and let another man seize the opportunity! + +Jasmin, too! Pah! The heavy perfume made +him ill. He was conscious of a fierce longing to +snatch the blossoms from her hand and crush +them down into the heart of the fire and hold +them there--the pale, sickly things. _He_ would +have given her roses, passionate, glorious roses, +deep-hearted and crimson with the wine of love. + +Pocahontas had small time for wondering over +her cavalier's sudden moroseness, for no sooner +had she entered the parlors than old friends +crowded forward to speak to her and claim a +dance; the girl was popular among the young +people of the vicinity. She was a wonderful +success that night. Not even Norma, for all her rich +tropical beauty, was more admired. + +"Our little squaw is smashing things, Berke," +remarked Roy Garnett, later in the evening, as he +joined his brother-in-law in the recess by the +fireplace. "The men all swear she's the handsomest +woman in the room--and on my soul I believe +they're right." + +"She does look well," responded Mason with +all a brother's calm moderation. "Her dress +is in good taste, and she moves gracefully. But +she isn't the handsomest woman in the room by +long odds. Look at Norma Smith." + +"I have looked at her," retorted Roy shortly, +"and so I suppose have the other men. There's +no more comparison between her and Princess +than there is between a gorgeous, striped tulip, and +a white tea rose." (For some inscrutable reason +Roy had never been able to endure Norma, and +even grudged acknowledgment of her undeniable +beauty). "Look at that fellow Thorne, now!" +he added, with the pleased alacrity of one producing +an unexpected trump, "I should say that _he_ +shared my opinion. He hasn't danced voluntarily +with another woman in the room, nor left her side +a moment that he could help. It looks as though +he were pretty hard hit, doesn't it?" + +Garnett was right; for after the episode with Jim +Byrd's flowers, Thorne had thrown self-control to +the winds. He danced with Pocahontas as +frequently as she would allow him, hovered constantly +in her vicinity, and only lost sight of her when +dragged off by his aunt for duty dances. Twice +during the evening--and only twice--did he leave her +voluntarily, and then it was to dance with Norma, +whose suspicions he did not wish to arouse. The +instinct of rivalry had overthrown all restraint and +for this evening he was madly determined to let +things take their course. They were here, he and +his family, in Jim Byrd's place; living in the +house that had been his, entertaining the friends +that had been his, in the very rooms that so short +a time ago had echoed to his footsteps and +resounded with his laugh. He had been thrust +aside, and must continue to stand aside; the past +had been his, let him keep out of the present; +let him beware how he marred the future. +And for the bond that held himself, Thorne had +forgotten all about it. In his passion and +excitement it was a thing without existence. + +Later in the evening, there came a gleam of +brightness for little Blanche; a blissful hour which +indemnified her for the boredom so unflinchingly +endured. As Norma only did what pleased her, +most of the drudgery of entertaining fell upon +Blanche, whose grievous portion it was to attend +to the comfort of dowagers; to find partners for +luckless damsels unable to find them for +themselves, and to encourage and bring out bashful +youths. As the latter considered that the true +expression of their gratitude lay in devoting +themselves exclusively and eternally to their +pretty little preceptress, Blanche had lately come +to hold this part of her duty a wearisome affliction. + +She was seated on a tiny sofa surrounded by a +band of uneasy and enamored youths ranging in +age from sixteen to twenty, when Mason caught +sight of her pretty, fatigued, but resolutely +courteous face, and came instantly to her rescue. He +was very fond of Blanche, and teased and petted +her with almost cousinly freedom. He felt +himself a middle-aged man beside her, and admired +her sweet face, and gentle unselfishness as +unreservedly as he would have done those of a child. +Moving her draperies aside with a kindly, if +unceremonious hand, he ensconced himself beside +her right willingly and devoted his best energies +to her amusement, and that of her small court; +lifted the burden of their entertainment from her +shoulders with ready tact, and waked the boys up +vigorously, causing them to enjoy themselves, and +forget that they were _young_; and lonesome, and +foolish. Kind, thoughtful Berkeley! No wonder +the silly little heart beside him fluttered joyously, +and the shy blue eyes were raised to his grave +handsome face with full measure of content. + +And so the hours sped, golden-footed, +silver-footed; and the pipers piped and the men and +maidens danced and the elders gossiped, drank +champagne, and reveled in the fleshpots, yawning +surreptitiously behind fans and handkerchiefs as +the evening waned. + +Pocahontas, roused from a dream of enjoyment +by Roy's mandate, sped lightly up stairs to the +dressing-room, and arrayed herself hastily in her +mufflings. At the stairway Thorne joined her, and +as her foot touched the lowest step he took her +unresisting hand and raised it to his lips murmuring +softly; "A happy New Year to you--my darling! my queen!" + +Then good-night to host and hostess, a swift, +impulsive kiss to Blanche, and Berkeley put her +into the carriage; Roy tightened the reins and +they drove rapidly away in the chill gray of the +January dawn. The ball was over; the New Year begun. + +Thorne, standing by the steps watching the +receding carriage, noticed the bouquet of +half-faded jasmin blossoms, which had slipped +unheeded from the girl's hand, and lay neglected +and forgotten on the frozen ground. The impulse +came to him to raise them tenderly because her +hands had touched them, and then the thought +of who had given them arose and struck down the +impulse. He set his heel upon them. + +For him also, the New Year had begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +The day after a ball is always a languid, wearisome period, to be dozed +or yawned through, on bed or sofa, in a state of total collapse. Life +for the time is disorganized, disenchanted; there is a feeling of +flatness everywhere, the rooms lately brilliant and joyous with light +and color; fade out in the chilling glare of day, and appear like +"banquet halls deserted," which each individual "treads alone," +surrounded by an atmosphere of fatigue, _ennui_ and crossness. In the +country the flatness falls with full perfection, for there is seldom +the anticipation of more excitement to buoy one up and keep the +effervescence of the cup of pleasure up to the proper sparkle. + +At a late--a very late breakfast, the morning after the Shirley ball, +the Smiths were assembled with the exception of Blanche, who had +entreated to be left undisturbed, since she must sleep or die, and +Percival, who had breakfasted sketchily on scraps and confectionery, +hours before, and was away in the woods with his gun. + +The mail, always deposited in a little heap beside the general's plate, +had been distributed. There was very little--two newspapers, a couple +of letters for Nesbit Thorne, and one for Norma from a New York friend, +claiming a promised visit, and overflowing with gossip and news of +Gotham, full of personalities also, and a faint lady-like suspicion of +wickedness--a racy, entertaining letter. The writer, a Mrs. Vincent, +was Norma's most intimate friend, and she often sacrificed an hour of +her valuable time to the amusement of the girl, whom she felt convinced +was bored to death down in that country desert. The letter in question +was unusually diffuse, for Mrs. Vincent was keeping her room with a +heavy cold, and had herself to amuse as well as Norma. Norma read +scraps of it aloud for the edification of her mother, and the young +men; the general, with his nose in his paper, let the tide of gossip +pass. + +Thorne, after a comprehensive glance at his own correspondence, slipped +his letters quietly into his pocket, and gave his best attention to his +cousin's. He had a rooted objection to reading even indifferent +letters under scrutiny, and these he felt convinced were not +indifferent; for one was addressed in the handsome large hand of his +wife, and the writing on the other was unknown to him--it had a legal +aspect. They were letters whose perusal might prove unpleasant; so +Thorne postponed it. + +There is an old adage relative to thoughts of the power of darkness +being invariably followed by the appearance of his emissaries, and +although Mrs. Thorne was far from being the devil, or her letter one of +his imps, the arrival of the one, so promptly upon the heels of +thoughts of the other, was singular; her husband felt it so. + +"Mamma," observed Norma, glancing up from her letter, "Kate says that +Cecil Cumberland is engaged, or going to be engaged, I can't exactly +make out which. Kate words it a little ambiguously; at all events +there appears to be considerable talk about it. Kate writes: 'Cecil +looks radiantly worried, and sulkily important. His family are ranged +in a solid phalanx of indignant opposition, which, of course, clinches +the affair firmly. Eva Cumberland was here this morning in a white +heat of passion over it; and I believe apoplexy or hydrophobia is +imminent for the old lady. The fact of Mrs.----'" Norma's voice +trailed off into an unintelligible murmur, and she read on silently. + +"Mrs.--who, my dear?" questioned her mother, with lively interest. "Is +Cecil going to marry an objectionable widow?" + +"Wait a moment, mamma. Kate writes so indistinctly, I'll be able to +tell you presently," there was a shade of reserve perceptible in +Norma's voice. + +"But why do the family oppose it?" persisted Mrs. Smith. A warning +look from her daughter admonished her to let the matter rest; that +there were facts connected with Mr. Cumberland's marriage, the +investigation and discussion of which had better be postponed. Mrs. +Smith's tongue burned with inquiries, but she bravely held them back, +and sought to produce a diversion by idle conjectures about Percival. + +Norma parried the curiosity of the others adroitly, and declining any +more breakfast, betook herself and her letter to the back parlor, where +she drew a deep arm-chair to the fire, and settled herself comfortably +to re-peruse that portion of her friend's epistle, which related to +Cecil Cumberland's affairs. + +Thorne presently followed her, and established himself opposite. He +was great friends with Norma; once, in the days before his marriage, +there had appeared a likelihood of their becoming more than friends. +All that had been forgotten by the man; the woman's memory was more +tenacious. They were wonderfully good friends still, these two; they +never worried or jarred on one another. + +Thorne, having no special desire to read his own letters, lighted a +cigar, stirred the fire to a glorious blaze, and waxed conversational. +The theme he selected for discussion was the topic introduced and +interdicted at the breakfast table a few moments previously--the +debatable engagement of their New York acquaintance. On this subject +he chose to exhibit an unusual--and as Norma felt, unnecessary, degree +of curiosity. He cross-questioned the girl vigorously, and failing to +elicit satisfactory replies, laughingly accused her of an attempt to +earn a cheap notoriety by the elaboration of a petty mystery. + +"I wish you'd stop trying to put me on the witness stand, Nesbit!" she +exclaimed in vexation; "why don't you read your own letters? One is +from Ethel, I know. See what she says." + +Thorne took his wife's missive from his pocket, opened, and glanced +through it hurriedly; then turned back to the first page, and re-read +it more carefully, the expression of his face hardening into cynicism, +slightly dashed with disgust. The letter was penned in a large running +hand and covered eight pages of dainty cream-laid paper. It was +rambling in phraseology, and lachrymose in tone, but it indicated a +want, and made that want clear. + +It was--divorce. + +Mrs. Thorne gave no special reason for desiring release from her +marriage vows; she dwelt at length on her "lonely and unprotected" +condition, and was very sorry for herself, and considered her case a +hard one; suggesting blame to her husband in that he had not taken the +necessary steps for her release long before. She intimated that he had +been selfish and lacking in proper consideration for her in leaving it +to her to take the initial steps in the matter. He should have +arranged about the divorce at the time of the separation, she said, and +so have spared her annoyance. As he had not done so, she hoped he +would show some consideration for her now, and help her to arrange the +disagreeable business as speedily and privately as possible. He really +owed her indulgence "after all that had passed"; the last words were +heavily underscored. + +Thorne, conscious that the present position of matters between them, as +well as the past unhappiness, was quite as much her fault as his, and +the act of separation more so--he having been the passive and +consenting party, did not consider it specially incumbent on him to +make things easy for his wife. In his irritation and disgust at her +heartless selfishness, he half determined to make them very much the +reverse. He was not surprised at his wife's communication; he knew +perfectly well that she would seek a divorce sooner or later, as the +liberality of the world in such matters made it natural that she should +do. He also knew that it was the larger command of the income which he +had allowed her for his child's sake, combined with the lack of strong +personal motive, which had prevented her from getting a divorce before. +Her letter irritated him, not because she desired to break the shadowy +bonds which still held her, but because he had behaved well to her, and +she had taken it as her right with careless ingratitude. What he had +done, he had done for his son's sake, but he was none the less provoked +that Ethel had failed of appreciation and acknowledgment. + +"Read _that_!" he said, and tossed the letter into Norma's lap. While +she was doing so, he broke the seal of the other letter which proved to +be a communication from a firm of solicitors in a small town in +Illinois, in whose hands Mrs. Thorne had placed her case. It was +delicately and ambiguously worded, as became the nature of the +business, and contained simply a courteous notification of their +client's intentions. + +Norma had been prepared for Mrs. Thorne's letter by that of her friend +Mrs. Vincent; and perhaps also by a secret hope on which she had fed +for years--a hope that this _would_ happen. She read the letter +therefore without emotion, and returned it without comment. + +"Well?" he queried impatiently. + +"Well!" she echoed. + +"What do you think of it?" + +"I think that Mrs. Thorne wishes to marry again." + +"No!--do you?" The tone was thoughtful; the interrogation delivered +slowly. The idea was a new one, and it put a different complexion upon +the matter, because of the child; there were still several years during +which the personal custody of the boy was the mother's of right. It +behooved him to look into this matter more closely. + +"Yes, I'm sure of it," responded Norma; "it's town talk. See what Kate +Vincent says about it." + +She handed him her letter folded down at this paragraph: "People have +been mildly excited, and the gossips' tongues set wagging by a rumor +which floated down from the Adirondacks last summer, and has been +gaining body and substance ever since. You remember how Cecil +Cumberland philandered after a certain lady of our acquaintance last +winter, and how unremitting were his attentions? Friendship, my dear! +Harmless friendship on a pure platonic platform; you understand--_honi +soit qui mal y pense_. Well this autumn the plot thickened; the +platonism became less apparent; the friendship more pronounced. +Nothing painfully noticeable--oh no; the lady is too clever--still, the +gossips began to take a contract, and work on it in slack seasons, and +latterly with diligence. It is openly predicted that madam will seek a +divorce, and then!--we shall see what we shall see. Cecil looks +radiantly worried and sulkily important. His family are ranged in a +solid phalanx of indignant opposition, which of course clinches the +matter firmly. Eva Cumberland was here this morning in a white heat of +passion over it, and I believe apoplexy or hydrophobia is imminent for +the old lady. The fact of Mrs. Thorne's being still a married woman +gives the affair a queer look to squeamish mortals, and the Cumberland +women are the quintessence of conservative old-fogyism; they might be +fresh from the South Carolina woods for all the advancement they can +boast. It's wicked, and I'm ashamed of myself, but whenever I think of +Ethel Thorne trying conclusions with those strait-laced Cumberlands, +I'm filled with unholy mirth." Then followed belated apologies for +this careless handling of a family matter, and copious explanations. +Mrs. Vincent was a wordy woman, fond of writing and apt to be diffuse +when not pressed for time. + +Thorne returned the letter to his cousin, and announced his intention +of returning to New York immediately. + +"By using dispatch I can catch the boat at Wintergreen this afternoon," +he said. "I wish you'd tell your mother, Norma, only your mother, +please; it will be time enough to acquaint the others when the whole +affair is out. And, Norma, I can trust you, I know; keep the matter +quiet here as long as possible. These people are strangers; they know +nothing. I don't want to be in every body's mouth--a nine days' +wonder, _here_ as well as in New York. It will be bad enough there. +Promise me to keep it quiet, Norma." + +Thorne had reasons for the request. He had ascertained, beyond all +doubt, that no hint of his story had as yet reached Pocahontas. He was +surprised at first, for he thought all women gossiped, and the affair +had never been a secret. He did not conceive for a moment, that the +fact of his divorce would be a permanent stumbling block in the way of +his happiness, but he realized something of the conservatism of her +surroundings, and the old world influences and prejudices amid which +she had been reared. She would be shocked and startled at first; she +would have to grow accustomed to the idea, then reconciled to it. He +recognized at a glance the immense advantage it would be to him to tell +his story himself, and, in his own way, to enlist her sympathy and to +arouse her indignation and her partisanship. + +The explanation of the girl's ignorance is simple and natural. The +intercourse between the two families was cordial and frequent, but +there were reservations--tracts of territory which were never trenched +on. There was about the Masons a certain fine reserve which +discouraged promiscuous and effusive confidences. Exhaustive +investigation of their neighbors' affairs had never been their +practice; it was a proud family; a conservative family. + +The Smiths had seen no reason to give publicity to their _own_ +particular family scandal. Other people's skeletons were interesting, +but the rattling of the bones of their own annoyed them. Then, too, it +was such an old story, its interest as gossip had passed, its piquancy +had evaporated. These people knew none of the parties; it could be to +them of no possible interest even as narrative. There had been no +definite determination on the part of the Smiths to say nothing of the +affair; but nothing had been said. Thorne did not correspond with his +wife, nor did any member of his family, so there were no tell-tale +letters to excite comment or curiosity at the village post-office. How +was Pocahontas to know? + +With Thorne's good pleasure, her ignorance would remain until he +himself should lift it. + +Norma gave the required promise willingly. She, too, objected to this +affair obtaining publicity. While Thorne sought her father to explain +a sudden call to New York "on business," she communicated the contents +of Mrs. Vincent's letter to her mother, and informed her of Thorne's +determination. Then leaving the good lady to get the better of her +consternation by herself, and to make impossible suggestions, to the +empty air, she repaired to her cousin's room, and assisted him in his +hurried preparations. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Norma was exultant. The thing she had longed, thirsted and well-nigh +prayed for, was coming to pass. Thorne would be a free man once more, +free to come back to her, free to bring again the old sweetness to her +life, free to renew the spring of years ago. Sitting by the library +fire in the gloaming after her cousin's departure, Norma dreamed dreams +and was happy--her eyes softened, and her lips smiled. Then her face +darkened slowly, and the hands in her lap clinched themselves. In her +fierce joy in the possibility of her reward coming to her at last, was +mingled a dread that the cup might be dashed from her lips a second +time. + +During the first couple of months after the removal to Virginia, Norma +had relaxed her constant, imperceptible watch over Thorne. He had +accompanied them to the new home unsolicited; and having come, he had +remained. Small wonder that Norma had been deceived; for vanity aside, +she could not help but know that no woman in that region--not even +Pocahontas Mason--was her peer in beauty, wit, or accomplishments. +What had she to fear, with habit and contrast both in her favor? Norma +neglected to provide against one subtle and most powerful +element--novelty. + +For the past few weeks, first one thing, then another; trifles light as +air, but forging a chain heavy enough to link suspicion with certainty, +had filled the girl with the old fever of unrest. Was she never to be +at rest? Would the glory of the past never shine upon the present? + +Like most women who allow their minds to dwell constantly on one theme, +Norma exaggerated the past. When she first left school there had been +a little semi-sentiment and a good deal of rather warm cousinly +attentions on Thorne's part, but without serious intention. As has +been stated, Thorne liked women; he sought their society and was apt to +endeavor to awaken their interest, to gain their affection. He thought +that the restless craving of his nature was for love to be given him. +It was not. It was the wild passion in his breast seeking to give +_itself_. What he needed was not more love drawn into the reservoir of +his heart, but an outlet for that already accumulated. This he had +never had since he had reached manhood, save only in his affection for +his child, and that was as yet too small a channel to afford vent for +the power of love behind. And so it came to pass that in his need for +an outlet, he had made a great deal of love to a great many women, and +had looked more than he made. + +As Norma budded into beautiful womanhood, he had been attracted by her, +and had yielded to the attraction, intending no harm but accomplishing +a good deal. He had liked and admired his cousin then, and in exactly +the same manner and degree, he liked and admired her now. + +To the young lady, the affair wore a totally different aspect; the +flirtation, which had meant nothing to him and had been long ago +effaced from his memory, meant every thing of value on earth to _her_, +and was as fresh in her mind as though the years that had passed had +been days or hours. Thorne's marriage had been a great blow to +her--great and unexpected. She had observed his attentions to Ethel +Ross, and raged at them in secret; but she had seen him equally devoted +to a score of other women, and the devotion had been evanescent; with +her rage and jealousy, had mingled no definite alarm. The +engagement--an affair of six weeks, had been contracted while she was +away from home, and the first intimation she had of it came through a +letter from Ethel Ross inviting her to officiate as bridesmaid. Norma +read and the heart within her died, but she made no sound, for she was +a proud woman--as proud as she was passionate. She even acceded to the +bride's request and, as Thorne's next of kin, led the bevy of girls +selected, from the fairest of society to do honor to the occasion; her +refusal would have excited comment. But as she stood behind the woman, +who she felt had usurped her place, a fierce longing was in her heart +to strike her rival dead at her feet. + +After the marriage she continued her intimacy with Mrs. Thorne--and +with Mr. Thorne. When clouds began to gather along the matrimonial +horizon, and "rifts within the lute" to make discord of life's music, +she beheld the one, and hearkened to the other with savage thrills of +satisfaction. She did nothing to widen the breach--Norma was too proud +to be a mischief-maker, but she did nothing to lessen it. She watched +with sullen pleasure the cleft increase to a crack, the crack to a +chasm. When the separation became an accomplished fact, it found +Norma, of course, ranged strongly on the husband's side. + +During the year which had elapsed since Thorne's return from abroad, +Norma had contrived to establish considerable influence over her +cousin. She studied him quietly, and adapted herself to his moods, +never boring him with an over-display of interest, never chilling him +with an absence of it. Her plan was to make herself necessary to him, +and in part she succeeded. Thorne, lonely and cut adrift, came more +and more frequently to his aunt's house and exhibited more and more +decidedly his preference for his cousin's society. The thin end of the +wedge was in, and but for the move to Virginia, and its ill-starred +consequences, the inevitable result must have followed. + +Would it follow now? A vision of Pocahontas, with her fair face, and +her sweet gray eyes framed in a soft cloud of white, standing on the +lower step of the stairway, with Thorne beside her, his head bent low +over the hand he clasped, rose before Norma's eyes and caused them to +burn with jealous anger. Here was the old thing repeating itself; here +was flirtation again, the exact extent of which she could not +determine. It must be stopped at once, trampled out ere the flame +should do irremediable damage. + +But how? With the question came the answer. Norma was sure that, as +yet, no knowledge of Thorne's marriage had ever reached Pocahontas. +She would enlighten her; and in such a way that, if there had been +aught of love-making on the gentleman's part (and Norma, knowing her +cousin, thought it probable there had been), every look and word and +tone should seem a separate insult. + +She also decided that it would be better to accept Mrs. Vincent's +invitation, and return to New York for awhile. She knew very well why +the invitation had been given, and saw through the shallow maneuvers to +win her acceptance of it. Hugh Castleton, Mrs. Vincent's favorite +brother, was in New York again, and she had not abandoned her old +scheme of a match between him and her friend. Norma felt quite +competent to foil her friend's plans in the present as she had foiled +them in the past, so had no hesitation, on that score, in accepting the +invitation. It would be better to be in New York--on the spot, while +this matter should be pending. Thorne might need advice, certainly +would need sympathy and petting; he must not learn to do without her. +Even if he had only been amusing himself here, after his reprehensible +wont, her presence in New York could do no harm and might be productive +of good. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +One afternoon, several days after Thorne's departure, Norma donned her +warmest wraps and set out for a walk over to Lanarth. It was a dull +afternoon following on a morning of uncertain brightness; dark clouds, +heavy with snow, hung sullenly along the horizon; and above, the sky +was of a somber, leaden hue. The air felt chill and clinging, like +that of a vault; and heaven above, and earth beneath betrayed a +severity of mood infinitely depressing. Norma shivered in spite of her +heavy furs, and hurried on, burying her hands in her muff. + +Pocahontas, duly notified of Norma's approach by the vigilant Sawney, +met her guest at the door, and drew her in with words of welcome, and +praises of her bravery in venturing abroad in such gloomy weather. The +girls did not kiss each other--as is too much the custom with their +sex. Pocahontas did not like effusive embraces; a kiss with _her_ +meant a good deal. + +In the sitting-room Mrs. Mason and Berkeley added their welcome, and +established Norma in the coziest corner of the hearth, where the fire +would comfort without scorching her. Pocahontas stooped to remove her +furs and wraps, but Norma staid her hand; it would not be worth while, +she said; she had only come to call. + +"Do stay to tea!" entreated Pocahontas. "Berke will take you home +afterward. We haven't looked on a white face except our own for two +whole days. We are pining for change and distraction, and beginning to +hate each other from very _ennui_. Take pity on us and stay." + +"Yes, my dear, you must consent," added Mrs. Mason. "You haven't taken +tea with us for a long time. Berkeley, help Norma with her wrappings. +And, Princess, suppose you run and tell Rachel to make waffles for tea. +Norma is so fond of them." + +Norma yielded to their persuasions, feeling a little curiously, but +hardening her heart. What she had come to say, she intended to say; +but it would be best to wait an opportunity. She let Berkeley take her +wraps, and established herself comfortably, bent on making the time +pass pleasantly, and herself thoroughly agreeable. + +The meal was a merry one, for Norma exerted herself unusually, and was +ably seconded by Pocahontas, who, for some reason, appeared in +brilliant spirits. After tea they discovered that it was snowing +heavily. The threatened storm had come--evenly, slowly, in a thick, +impenetrable cloud, the white flakes fell, without haste, excitement or +the flurry of wind. Already the ground was covered and the trees were +bending with the weight of the white garment the sky was throwing over +them. It was unfit weather for a lady to encounter, or indeed for +anything feminine to be abroad in, save a witch on a broomstick. Norma +was fain to accept Mrs. Mason's invitation and remain for the night at +Lanarth. + +When the two girls, in dressing gowns and slippers, sat over the fire +in Pocahontas's room, brushing out their long hair, Norma found the +opportunity for which she had lain in wait the entire evening. It was +the hour for confidences, the house was quiet, the inmates all +dispersed to their several couches. Norma, brush in hand and hair +flowing in a heavy, black veil around her, had quitted her own room +across the passage, and established herself in a low rocking-chair +beside Pocahontas's bright fire. She was far too clever a diplomatist +to introduce her subject hastily; she approached it gradually from long +range--stalked it delicately with skillful avoidance of surprise or +bungling. The game must be brought down; on that she was determined; +but there should be no bludgeon blows, no awkward carnage. The +death-stab should be given clean, with scientific skill and swiftness, +and the blow once given, she would retire to her own room and let her +victim find what solace she could in solitude. Norma was not wantonly +cruel; she could impale a foe, but she had no desire to witness his +contortions. After a death-scene she shrank from the grewsomeness of +burial; she preferred a decent drop-curtain and the grateful darkness. + +After some idle conversation, she deftly turned the talk upon New York, +and the life there, and rallied all her powers to be picturesque and +entertaining. She held her listener entranced with rapid, clever +sketches of society and the men and women who composed it, drawing +vivid pictures of its usages, beliefs, and modes of thought and +expression. Gradually she glided into personalities, giving some of +her individual experiences, and sketching in an acquaintance or two, +with brilliant, caustic touches. Soon Thorne's name appeared, and she +noticed that the listener's interest deepened. She spoke of him in +warm terms of admiration--dwelt on his intellect, his talents and the +bright promise of his manhood; and then, observing that the brush had +ceased its regular passes over the bright brown hair, and that the gray +eyes were on the fire, without pause or warning she spoke of his +hurried courtship and sudden marriage. She winced involuntarily as she +saw the cold, gray pallor creep slowly over the girl's face, and noted +the sudden tremor that passed through her limbs; but she steeled +herself against compassion, and proceeded with her brushing and her +narrative like one devoid of sight and understanding. + +"I can not expect you, who know Nesbit so slightly, to be much +interested in all this," she said, watching Pocahontas through her +lashes; "I fear I only bore you with my story, but my mind has been so +exercised over the poor fellow's troubles again lately, that I must +unburden it to some one. You have no personal interest in the matter, +therefore you will forgive my trespassing on your courtesy--especially +when I tell you that I've no one at home to talk to. Nesbit wishes +particularly that his story shouldn't get abroad here, and if I should +revive it in Blanche's mind, she might mention it to others. Mamma +would not; but unfortunately mamma and I rarely look at a thing from +the same standpoint. It's been a relief to speak to you--far greater +than speaking to Blanche. Blanche is so excitable." + +Yes; Blanche was excitable, Pocahontas assented absently; she was +bracing her will, and steeling her nerves to endure without flinching. +Not for worlds would she--even by the quivering of an eyelash--let +Norma see the torture she was inflicting. She felt that Norma had an +object in this disclosure, and was dimly sure that the object was +hostile. She would think it all out later; at present Norma must not +see her anguish. A woman would sooner go to the stake and burn slowly, +than allow another woman, who is trying to hurt her, to know that she +suffers. + +Norma continued, speaking gently, without haste or emotion, telling of +the feverish brightness of those early days of marriage, and of the +clouds that soon obscured the sunshine--telling of the _ennui_ and +unhappiness, gradually sprouting and ripening in the ill-assorted +union--shielding the man, as women will, and casting the blame on the +woman. Finally she told of the separation, lasting now two years, and +of the letter from his wife which had caused Thorne's precipitate +departure the day after the Shirley ball. + +But of the divorce now pending she said never a word. + +"Have they any children?" questioned Pocahontas steadily. + +And was told that there was one--a little son, to whom the father was +attached, and the mother indifferent. It was a strange case. + +Again Pocahontas assented. Her voice was cold and even; its tones low +and slightly wearied. To herself it appeared as though she spoke from +a great distance, and was compelled to use exertion to make herself +heard. She was conscious of two distinct personalities--one prostrate +in the dust, humiliated, rent and bleeding, and another which held a +screen pitifully before the broken thing, and shielded it from +observation. When Norma bid her good-night she responded quietly, and +rising accompanied her guest to her room to see that every arrangement +was perfect for her comfort. + +Far into the night she sat beside her dying fire trying to collect her +faculties, and realize the extent of the calamity which had befallen +her. The first, and, for the time, dominant emotion was a stinging +sense of shame, an agony of rage and humiliation which tingled hotly +through her, and caused her cheek to flame, and her body to writhe as +from the lash of a whip. She had been degraded; an insult had been put +upon her. Her eyes blazed, and her hands clinched. Oh, for strength +to hurl the insult back--for a man's arm and a man's power to avenge +the foul affront! He--a married man--to come, concealing his bonds, +and playing the part of a lover free to woo--free to approach a woman +and to win her heart! The proud head bent to meet the hands upraised +to cover the pale, drawn face. She loved him and he was unworthy. He +had deceived and lied to her, if not in words, then in actions; knowing +himself bound to another woman, he had deliberately sought her out and +made her love him. It was cruel, cruel! All along she had played +virgin gold against base metal, and now she was bankrupt. + +When the burning, maddening sense of outrage had passed, and pride +stood with lowered crest and listless hands, love lifted its head and +tried to speak. He was not without excuse, love pleaded; his life had +been miserable; his lot hard and unendurable; he had been given a stone +for bread, and for wine, the waters of Marah. Until the night of the +ball he had retained mastery over himself--had held his love in check. +Then memory roused herself and entered testimony--words, looks, tender, +graceful attentions thronged back upon her, and pride caught love by +the throat and cried out that there was no excuse. + +Perhaps, she pondered heavily, he, too, writhed beneath this avalanche +of pain; perhaps remorse and the consciousness of the anguish he had +entailed upon them both tore and lacerated him. He had gone away at +last, out of her life, back to the home and the ties that were hateful +to him. He had gone away to take up his share of their joint burden, +and he would be merciful, and never cross her path again. + +But would he? The girl quivered, her hand sought the pocket of her +dress, and her eyes glanced forlornly around the room like the eyes of +a hunted creature. She recalled something that the morning's post had +brought her--something that had seemed sweet and fair, something that +had caused her pulses to thrill, all day, with exultant happiness. + +Only a New Year card; a graceful white-fringed thing, showing a handful +of blue forget-me-nots, thrown carelessly beside an old anchor on a bit +of golden sand. Pocahontas laid it on her lap and gazed at it with +strained, tearless eyes, and read anew its sweet message of remembrance +and hope. She had been startled by Thorne's sudden departure, but had +quietly accepted the message of explanation and farewell sent her by +Blanche; she trusted him too implicitly to doubt that what he did was +best and wisest, and was happy in the knowledge that he would return. + +How long ago it appeared to her already, since this pretty card had +come; she looked at it strangely, with eyes in which there was longing, +renunciation, and a wild hopelessness of love. She must not keep it; +it was not hers; it belonged of right to that other--the woman who was +his wife. No, she must not keep it--the beautiful, tender thing. With +steady hand, but blanched, quivering lips, she reached over and made a +little grave among the dying embers, in which a sullen spark glowed +like baleful eye. Quietly, with the feeling that she was burying all +of youth and hope and joy her life would ever know, she kissed the card +with dumb, clinging, passionate kisses, and then with a low, dry sob, +covered it from sight. + +As she raised herself up, her eyes fell on the little box lying on her +desk in which she had placed the fragments of the cup they had broken +between them--the cup that her old play-fellow had used on that last +evening. With the impulse of habit and association, her mind turned +wearily to Jim. He was so true; he had never failed her. Had _he_ +suffered as she was suffering? Poor Jim! Was this ceaseless, gnawing +agony that had usurped _her_ life no stranger to _his_? If so--God +pity him!--and her! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +On the way up from Virginia, Nesbit Thorne ran over in his mind the +possibilities opened by this new move of his wife's, and, on the whole, +he was satisfied. The divorce had become as much an object with him as +with her, and if she had remained quiescent in the matter, he must have +moved. He was glad to have been spared this--very glad that the +initial steps had been of her taking. It put him in a good position +with himself. The _manes_ of his mother's scruples would be satisfied, +and would never cause him discomfort since the fault did not rest with +him. And then the boy--never could his son cast word or thought of +blame to the father who had behaved so well; who had given every +chance, foregone every advantage; acted not only the part of a +gentleman, but of a generous, long-suffering man. Thorne felt a glow +of satisfaction in the knowledge that in years to come his son would +think well of him. + +But this supposition of Norma's in regard to a second marriage put the +whole matter in a new light in regard to the child. If such a change +should be in contemplation, other arrangements must be made about the +boy; he could no longer remain in the custody of his mother. _His_ son +could not remain under the roof of his wife's second husband during his +own lifetime. The line must be drawn somewhere. It did not occur to +Thorne that his wife, with equal justice, might raise similar +objections. + +He determined to see Ethel at once and discover whether or not there +was truth in the reports that had reached him anent Cecil Cumberland. +If there should be, he would bring such pressure as lay in his power to +bear on her, in order to obtain immediate possession of the boy. The +child was still so young that the law gave the mother rights which +could only be set aside at the expense of a disagreeable suit; but +Thorne thought he could manage Ethel in such a way as to make her +voluntarily surrender her rights. He knew that her affection for the +child was neither deep nor strong. + +He ascended the steps of his own house and rang the bell sharply. It +was answered by a strange servant who regarded him with interest; +evidently a gentleman caller at that hour of the morning was unusual. +Was Mrs. Thorne at home? The man would inquire. Would the gentleman +walk in. What name should he say? Mr. Thorne--and his business was +pressing; he must see her at once. + +The man opened the door of the back parlor and stood aside to let Mr. +Thorne pass; then he closed it noiselessly and proceeded up-stairs to +inform his mistress. + +Thorne glanced around the room curiously; it was two years since he had +seen it. On the marble hearth burned a bright wood-fire, and the +dancing flames reflected themselves in the burnished brasses. The +tiles around the fireplace were souvenirs of his wedding, hand-painted +by the bevy of bridesmaids to please a fancy of Ethel's. Norma's was +in the center--the place of honor. It was a strange thing that Norma +had selected to paint; heavy sprays of mingled nightshade and monkshood +on a ground the color of a fading leaf; but, strange as it was, it was +the most beautiful of them all. There were flowers in the room and the +perfume of heliotrope and roses filled the air. The piano was open and +on it one of the popular songs of the day; a loud, garish thing. Ethel +liked what she called "bright music;" on the keys lay a tumbled lace +handkerchief, and on the floor, close to the pedal of the instrument, +was a man's driving glove. + +Over the piano hung the portrait of a lady with soft, gray hair, and +the expression of purity and love which medieval painters gave to their +saints. It was a picture of Thorne's mother and it hurt him to see it +there. He determined to have it removed as soon as possible. + +The door opened and Mrs. Thorne entered, feeling herself terribly +ill-used and persecuted, in that her husband had elected to come to her +in person, instead of availing himself of the simpler and more +agreeable mode of communication through their lawyers. It was quite +possible that he would make himself disagreeable. Mrs. Thorne shrank +from any thing disagreeable, and had no tolerance for sarcasms +addressed to herself. She would have refused the interview had she +dared, but in her heart she was dimly afraid of her husband. + +Thorne bowed coldly, and then placed a chair for her on the hearth-rug. +"Sit down," he said, "I want to talk to you," and then he seated +himself opposite her. + +For awhile he did not speak; somehow the words he had come to say stuck +in his throat; it was so cold-blooded for them, husband and wife, to +sit there beside their own hearth and discuss their final separation. +A log, which had burned in half, fell and rolled forward on the marble +hearth, sending little puffs of gray smoke into the room. He reached +past her for the tongs and laid the log back in its place, and the +little action seemed to seal his lips more closely. The tiny clock on +the carved oak mantle chimed the hour in soft, low tones; he counted +the strokes as they fell, one, two, and so on up to twelve. The winter +sunshine streamed in between the parting of the curtains and made a +glory of his wife's golden hair. + +Ethel was the first to speak. "You got my letter?" she questioned, +keeping her eyes fixed on the fire. + +"Yes; that is the reason I'm here." + +The broken log was blazing again quite merrily, the two ends far apart. + +"Why not have written instead of coming?" she demanded, as one who +protested against some grievous injury; "it would have been far +pleasanter for both. There's no sense in our harassing ourselves with +personal interviews." + +"I preferred a personal interview." + +Ethel lapsed into silence; the man was a hopeless brute, and it was +useless to expect courtesy from him. She tapped her foot against the +fender, and a look of obstinacy and temper disfigured the soft outlines +of her face. The silence might remain unbroken until the crack of doom +for any further effort she would make. + +Thorne broke it himself. He was determined to carry his point, and in +order to do so strove to establish ascendency over his wife from the +start. + +"What's the meaning of this new move, Ethel?" he demanded, +authoritatively. "I want to understand the matter thoroughly. Why do +you want a divorce?" + +Mrs. Thorne turned her face toward him defiantly. + +"Because I'm tired of my present life, and I want to change it. I'm +sick of being pointed at, and whispered about, as a deserted wife--a +woman whose husband never comes near her." + +"Whose fault is that?" he retorted sharply; "this separation is none of +my doing, and you know it. Bad as things had become, I was willing to +worry along for the sake of respectability and the child; but you +wouldn't have it so. You insisted on my leaving you--said the very +sight of me made your chains more intolerable. Had I been a viper, you +could scarcely have signified your desire for my absence in more +unmeasured terms." + +"I know I desired the separation," Mrs. Thorne replied calmly, "I +desire it still. My life with you was miserable, and my wish to live +apart has only increased in intensity. You never understood me." + +Thorne might have retorted that the misunderstanding had been mutual, +and also that _all_ the wretchedness had not fallen to her share; but +he would not stoop to reproaches and vituperation. It was a natural +peculiarity of her shallow nature to demand exhaustive comprehension +for quite commonplace emotions. + +"It's useless debating the past, Ethel. We've both been too much to +blame to afford the luxury of stone-throwing. What we must consider +now is the future. Is your mind quite made up? Are you determined on +the divorce?" + +"Quite determined. I've given the matter careful consideration, and am +convinced that entire separation, legal as well as nominal, is +absolutely necessary to my happiness." + +"And your reasons?" + +"Haven't I told you, Nesbit?" using his name, for the first time, in +her anger. "Why do you insist on my repeating the same thing over and +over, eternally? I'm sick of my life, and want to change it." + +"But how?" he persisted. "Your life will be the same as now, and your +position not so assured. The alimony allowed by law won't any thing +like cover your present expenditures, and you can hardly expect me to +be more generous than the law compels. The divorce can make little +difference, save to diminish your income and deprive you of the +protection of my name. You will not care to marry again, and the +divorce will be a restricted one." Thorne was forcing his adversary's +hand. + +"Why will it be restricted?" she demanded, her color and her temper +rising. "It shall _not_ be restricted, or hampered in any way, I tell +you, Nesbit Thorne! Am I to be fettered, and bound, and trammeled by +you forever? I will _not_ be. The divorce shall give me unlimited +power to do what I please with my life. It shall make me as free as +air--as free as I was before I married you." + +"You would not wish to marry again?" he repeated. + +"Why not?" rising to her feet and confronting him in angry excitement. + +"Because, in that case, you would lose your child. I neither could nor +would permit my son to be brought up in the house of a man who stood to +him in the relationship you propose." + +"You cannot take him from me," Mrs. Thorne retorted in defiant +contradiction; her ideas of the power of men and lawyers hopelessly +vague and bewildered. "No court on earth would take so small a child +from his mother." + +"Ah! you propose having the case come into court then? I misunderstood +you. I thought you wished the affair managed quietly, to avoid +publicity and comment. Of course, if the case comes into court, I +shall contest it, and try to obtain possession of the boy, even for the +time the law allows the mother, on the ground of being better able to +support and educate him." + +"I do not want the case to come into court here, Nesbit, and you know +that I do not! Why do you delight in tormenting me?" + +"Listen to me, Ethel. I've no wish to torment you. I simply wished to +show you that I would abide by my rights, and that I have some +power--all the power which money can give--on my side. Our marriage +has been a miserable mistake from the first; we rushed into it without +knowledge of each other's characters and dispositions, and, like most +couples who take matrimony like a five-barred gate, we've come horribly +to grief. I shall not stand in your way; if you wish to go, I shall +not hinder you. This is what I propose: I'll help you in the matter, +will take all the trouble, make the arrangements, bear all the expense. +It will be necessary for one of us to go to Illinois, and see these +lawyers, if the divorce is to be gotten there. It may be necessary to +undergo a short residence in the state in order to simulate +citizenship, and make the divorce legal. I'll find out about this, and +if it's necessary I will do it. After the divorce, I'll allow you the +use of this house, and a sufficient income to support it; and also the +custody of our son as long as you remain unmarried. In return, you +must waive all right to the boy for the years you can legally claim +him, and must bind yourself to surrender him to me, or any person I +appoint, at least a month before any such marriage, and never, by word +or act, to interfere in his future life, or any disposition I may think +best to make of him. I should also strongly object to any future +marriage taking place from my house, and should expect legal notice in +ample time to make arrangements about the boy." + +"Would you allow me to see the child whenever I wished?" + +"Certainly. I'm no brute, and you are his mother. I shall only +stipulate that the meetings take place in some other house than yours. +You are at liberty to visit him as often as you like, so long as you +are faithful to our agreement and leave his mind unbiased. I will +never mention you unkindly to him, and shall expect the same +consideration from you. When he is old enough to judge between us, he +will decide as he thinks right." + +"Suppose you marry again, yourself. What about the child then? You +are very hard and uncompromising in your dictation to me, Nesbit, but I +can have feelings and scruples as well as you." + +Thorne was startled. He considered that he was behaving well to his +wife. He wanted to behave well to her; to let the past go generously, +so that no shadow of reproach from it might fall upon the future. Her +tart suggestion set the affair in a new light. It was an unpleasant +light, and he turned his back on it, thinking that by so doing he +disposed of it. There was the distance of the two poles between +Pocahontas Mason and Cecil Cumberland. _He_ surely was the best judge +of what would conduce to the welfare of his son. + +"We were discussing the probability of your re-marriage, not mine," he +responded coldly; "the reports in circulation have reached even me at +last." + +"What reports?" with defiant inquiry. + +"That you are seeking freedom from your allegiance to one man, in order +to swear fealty to another. That your vows to me are irksome because +they prevent your taking other vows to Cecil Cumberland. I pass over +the moral aspect of the affair; that must rest with your own +conscience," (it is astonishing how exemplary Thorne felt in +administering the rebuke); "that rests with your conscience," he +repeated, "and with that I've nothing to do. The existence of such +reports--which lays your conduct as a married woman open to +censure--gives me the right to dictate the terms of our legal +separation. I'm obliged to speak plainly, Ethel. You brought about +the issue, and must abide by the consequences. I've stated my terms +and it's for you to accept or decline them." + +Thorne leaned back in his chair and watched the flames eat into the +heart of the hickory logs. He had no doubt of her decision, but he +awaited it courteously. The broken log had burned completely away, and +a little heap of whity-gray ashes lay on each side of the hearth. + +Ethel sat and pondered, weighing at full value all the advantages and +disadvantages of the proposal and deciding that the former outweighed +the latter. The object on which she was bent--the thing which appeared +the greatest earthly good, was the divorce. At any cost, she would +obtain _that_, and obtain it as quickly and quietly as possible; no +talk, no exposure, no disagreeable comments. This was the main point, +and to carry it, Ethel Thorne felt herself capable of more than the +surrender of one small child. The separation at worst would only be +partial; she could see the boy every day if she wished--even after her +marriage with Cecil Cumberland. Nesbit had promised, and in all her +experience of him she had never known him break his word. Then she +could retain the little fellow until all these troublesome affairs +should be settled, which would disarm criticism and save appearances, +and appearances _must_ be preserved on account of the Cumberlands. + +That a divorced daughter-in-law would be none too welcome in that +stately, old-fashioned family, Mrs. Thorne was well aware. Perhaps it +would be as well to be unhampered by such a forcible reminder of her +former state as the child, while she was winning the Cumberland heart +and softening the Cumberland prejudice. Cecil, she knew already, +regarded the baby with scant favor, and would be unfeignedly rejoiced +to be quit of him. On the whole, Nesbit was behaving well to her. She +had expected far more difficulty, infinitely more bitterness, for, like +the world, she gave her husband credit for the scruples of his father's +faith. Her heart softened toward him a little for the first time in +years--or would have softened, but for the blow he had dealt her +egregious self-love in letting her go so easily. + +She signified her acceptance of his proposal in a few brusque, +ungracious words, for she considered it due to her dignity to be +disagreeable, in that she was acceding to terms, not dictating them. + +Thorne rose from his chair with a deep breath of relief. The interview +had been intolerable to him, and although he had carried his point and +acquitted himself well, his prominent feeling was one of unqualified +disgust. What a lie his married life had been! What a sepulcher +filled with dead, dry bones! For the moment all womanhood was lowered +in his eyes because of his wife's heartless selfishness. Had she shown +any feeling about the boy--any ruth, or mother-love, Thorne knew that +he would not have driven so hard a bargain; felt that he might even +have let his compassion rule his judgment. But she had shown none; all +her thought and care had been for herself, and herself alone. And for +her, and such as her, men wrecked their lives. A flood of anger at his +past folly, of resentful bitterness at the price he had been forced to +pay for it, passed over Thorne. He could scarcely constrain himself to +the formal bow which courtesy required. + +As he left the room, the sound of a child's wailing came down to him, +mingled with the sound of a woman's voice soothing it. He glanced back +at his wife; she had moved nearer the fire, her fair head with its +golden glory of hair was thrown back against the dark velvet of the +chair; she was smiling and the sound of the child's grief fell on +heedless ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Thorne had even less difficulty with his legal arrangements than he had +anticipated. He had, hitherto, relegated the subject of divorce to the +limbo of things as little thought and spoken of as possible by +well-bred people. He knew nothing of the _modus operandi_, and was +surprised at the ease and celerity with which the legal machine moved. + +"I'll have to prove my identity, and the truth of my statements to the +men out there, I suppose," he remarked to the lawyer, from whom he +obtained all necessary information. + +The lawyer laughed; he was a Southerner by birth, and his voice was +gentle, his manner courteous. + +"Of your identity, Mr. Thorne, these men will take excellent care to +inform themselves, and of your responsibility also," he answered. "For +the truth of your statements, they are apt to take your word, and the +depositions of your witnesses, without troubling themselves about +substantiating the facts. The soundness of your evidence is your +lookout, not theirs. If the case were to be contested, it would be +different, but, in this instance, there is consent of both parties, +which simplifies matters. This case is reduced to a matter of mere +form and business." + +"Apparently, then, my statements may be a tissue of lies from beginning +to end, for all the difference it makes," observed Thorne, curious to +discover how small a penknife could now cut the bond which once the +scythe of death alone was held to be able to sever. + +"For your veracity, Mr. Thorne, your appearance is a sufficient +voucher," responded the lawyer, with a ready courtesy. "And the +looseness on which you comment, recollect, is all in your favor. When +a man has an unpleasant piece of business in hand, it's surely an +immense advantage to be able to accomplish it speedily and privately." + +Thorne walked in the direction of his hotel in a state of +preoccupation. He was sore and irritated; he disliked it all +intensely; it jarred upon him and offended his taste. Over and over he +cursed it all for a damnable business from beginning to end. He was +perfectly aware, reasoning from cause to effect, that the situation +was, in some sort, his own fault; but that was a poor consolation. +That side of the question did not readily present itself; his horizon +was occupied by the nearer and more personal view. He loathed it all, +and was genuinely sorry for himself and conscious that fate was dealing +hardly by him. + +As he turned a corner, he ran against a tall, handsome young lady, who +put out her hand and caught his arm to steady herself, laughing gayly: + +"Take care, Nesbit!" she exclaimed, "you nearly knocked me down. Since +when have you taken to emulating Mrs. Wilfer's father, and 'felling' +your relatives to the earth?" + +"Why, Norma! is it really you?" he questioned, refusing to admit the +evidence of sight and touch unfortified by hearing. + +He was genuinely delighted to see her, and foresaw that she would be a +comfort to him during the days that must elapse before it became +possible for him to start for Illinois. He needed sympathy and some +one to make much of him. And Norma, with her lustrous eyes aglow with +the pleasure of the meeting, appeared to divine it, for she set herself +to entertain him with little incidents and adventures of her journey +from Virginia, and with scraps of intelligence of the people at home. +She did not mention Pocahontas, save in reply to a direct inquiry, and +then simply stated that she had spent a night at Lanarth a day or so +before coming North, and that the family were all well. + +She cheered Thorne wonderfully, for she seemed to bring Virginia and +the life of the last few months nearer to him--the peaceful life in +which new hopes had budded, in which he had met, and known, and loved +Pocahontas. Norma did him good, raised his spirits, and made the +future look bright and cheerful; but not in the way she hoped and +intended. She had come North with the hope of furthering her own +plans, of making herself necessary and agreeable, of keeping the old +days fresh in his memory. And she _was_ necessary to him, as a trusted +comrade who had never failed him; a clever adviser in whose judgment he +had confidence; a charming friend who was fond of him, and who had, but +now, come from the enchanted land where his love dwelt. Of her plans +he knew nothing, suspected nothing; and the days she brought fresh to +his thoughts were days in which she had no part. + +In a little while, he went West, and there was a period of uneventful +waiting; after which Norma received a Western paper containing a short +and unobtrusive notice of the granting of a divorce to Nesbit Thorne +from Ethel, his wife. + +She bore it away to her room and gloated over it greedily. Then she +took her pen and ran it around the notice, marking it heavily; this +done, she folded, sealed and directed it in a clear, bold hand--General +Percival Smith,--Wintergreen Co., Virginia. It would save elaborate +explanations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Spring opened very late that year in Virginia--slowly and regretfully, +as though forced into doing the world a favor against its will, and +determined to be as grudging and disagreeable over it as possible. The +weather was cold, wet, and unwholesome--sulking and storming +alternately, and there was much sickness in the Lanarth and Shirley +neighborhood. The Christmas had been a green one--only one small spurt +of snow on Christmas eve, which vanished with the morning. The negroes +were full of gloomy prognostications in consequence, and shook their +heads, and cast abroad, with unction, all sorts of grewsome prophecies +anent the fattening of the church-yard. + +All through the winter, Mrs. Mason had been ailing, and about the +beginning of March she succumbed to climatic influences, backed by +hereditary tendency, and took to her bed with a severe attack of +inflammatory rheumatism. Pocahontas had her hands full with household +care and nursing, and perhaps it was as well, for it drove self into +the background of her mind, for a part of the time at least, and filled +with anxiety the empty days. Grace, living five miles away and loaded +down with family cares and duties of her own, could be of little +practical assistance. + +The winter had been a hard one for Pocahontas, harder, perhaps, for the +gallant nature which forbade her to bewail herself. She suffered +deeply and dumbly through all the weary nights and days. Pride and +womanly reserve precluded all beating of the breast, and forced +principle and nature to the ceaseless fight. Right gallantly she bore +herself. The mortification, the anguish, the love, must be met, hand +to hand, eye to eye, foot to foot. She endeavored to keep cheerful--to +take the same interest in life as formerly, and in the main she +succeeded; but there would come times when the struggle would seem +greater than she could bear, and being a woman, with a woman's heart, +and a woman's nerves, she would be irritable and difficult. But these +moods were never of long duration, any more than the more desperate +ones, when she would lock herself in her chamber and cast herself on +the floor and lie there prone and quivering--heart and conscience +utterly at variance--heart crying out with mad insistence that the +struggle was in vain; for love was strengthened by repression; and +conscience sternly replying that it should not be; the struggle should +continue until the last vestige of love should be expunged from heart +and life. It was no wonder, as time went on, that the girl's cheek +paled and that a dumb pleading came into the pure gray eyes. + +Sometimes the thought of Jim would come and place itself in contrast to +the thought of the other man, for, unconsciously to her, her old friend +was her standard in many things. Her recognition of the nobility of +Jim's love would force, in some sort, recognition of the selfishness of +Thorne's love. She put such thoughts from her fiercely, and girded at +Jim in her aching, unreasonable heart, because his love was grander and +truer than the love she craved. Once, when old Sholto--the great red +setter--came and laid his head lovingly upon her lap, she frowned and +pushed him roughly away, because he looked up at her with eyes whose +honest faithfulness reminded her of Jim. + +And the mother watched her child silently; conscious, through the +divination of unselfish mother-love, that her daughter suffered, yet +powerless to help her, save by increased affection and the intangible +yet perceptible comfort of a delicate respect. She could trust her +child and would not force her confidence; if spoken sympathy were +needed, Pocahontas knew that her mother's heart was open to her, and if +to her silence should seem best, she should have her will. From long +experience Mrs. Mason knew that some sorrows must be left quietly to +time. + +When at length the news of Thorne's divorce reached them, she warded +off with tender consideration all remark or comment likely to hurt the +girl, and gave straight-forward, hot-tempered Berkeley a hint which +effectually silenced him. In sooth, the honest fellow had small liking +for the subject. He bitterly resented what he considered Thorne's +culpable concealment of the fact of his marriage. He remembered the +night of the ball at Shirley, and the memory rankled. It did not occur +to him that the matter having remained a secret might have been the +natural result of an unfortunate combination of circumstances, and in +no sort the consequence of calculation or dishonor on Thorne's part. +Neither did it occur to him, large-minded man though he was, to try to +put himself in Thorne's place and so gain a larger insight into the +affair, and the possibility of arriving at a fairer judgment. +Berkeley's interest in the matter was too personal to admit of +dispassionate analysis, or any impulse toward mercy, or even justice. +His anger burned hotly against Thorne, and when the thought of him rose +in his mind it was accompanied by other thoughts which it is best not +to put into words. + +During Mrs. Mason's illness, little Blanche was unremitting in her +attentions, coming over daily with delicacies of her own concoction, +and striving to help her friends with a sweet, unobtrusive kindness +which won hearty response from both ladies, and caused them to view +Berkeley's increasing attentions to the little maid with pleasure. +They even aided the small idyl by every lawful means, having the girl +with them as often as they could and praising her judiciously. + +With her winsome, childish ways and impulsiveness, Blanche formed a +marked contrast to grave, reserved Berkeley Mason, and was perhaps +better suited to him on that account. When their engagement was +announced, there was no lack of congratulation and satisfaction in both +families. The general, as he gave his hearty approbation to her +choice, pinched her ears and asked what had become of her objections to +Virginia; and Percival tormented her unceasingly, twitting her with her +former wails of lamentation. Blanche did not care. She took their +teasing in good part, and retorted with merry words and smiles and +blushes. She had made her journey to the unknown, and returned with +treasure. + +Mrs. Smith, in her chamber, smiled softly, and thought on muslin and +lace and wedding favors. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The weeks rolled by, and gradually Mrs. Mason grew convalescent. She +was still confined to her room, but the worst of the pain was over, and +she could lie on the sofa by the fireside and have Berkeley read aloud +to her in the evenings. Blanche, if she happened to be there, would +sit on a low chair beside the sofa, busy with some delicate bit of +fancy work, and later in the evening Berke would take her home. +Sometimes Pocahontas would bring her work and listen, or pretend to +listen, with the rest, but oftener she would go into the parlor and +play dreamily to herself for hours. She had taken up her music +industriously and practiced hard in her spare moments. + +She had been playing a long time one evening in April, and had left the +piano for a low chair beside the open fire. She was tired. Although +spring had come, the evenings were chill and the room was large. Her +hands were cold and she spread them out to the blaze. The heavy +curtains billowed and sank and billowed again, as intrusive puffs of +wind crept officiously through the crevices of the old casements. +Blanche and Berkeley were with her mother, and they were reading "Lorna +Doone." She had read the book a week ago, and did not care to hear it +over. + +The front door opened quietly--it was always on the latch--and +footsteps came along the hall; quick, eager footsteps, straight to the +parlor door; the knob turned. No need to turn her head, no need to +question of her heart whose step, whose hand that was, to guess whose +presence filled the room. + +Thorne came across the room, and stood opposite, a great light of joy +in his eyes, his hands outstretched for hers. Benumbed with many +emotions, Pocahontas half-rose, an inarticulate murmur dying on her +lips. Thorne put her gently back into her chair, and drew one for +himself up to the hearth-rug near her; he was willing to keep silence +for a little space, to give her time to recover herself; he was +satisfied for the moment with the sense of her nearness, and his heart +was filled with the joy of seeing her once more. The lamps were lit, +but burning dimly. Thorne rose and turned both to their fullest +brilliancy; he must have light to see his love. + +"I want to look at you, Princess," he said gently, seeking her eyes, +with a look in his not to be misunderstood; "it has been so long--so +cruelly long, my darling, since I have looked on your sweet face. You +must not call the others. For this first meeting I want but you--you +only, my love! my queen!" His voice lingered over the terms of +endearment with exquisite tenderness. + +Pocahontas was silent--for her life she could not have spoken then. +Her gray eyes had an appealing, terrified look as they met his; her +trembling hands clasped and unclasped in her lap. + +"How frightened you look, my darling," Thorne murmured, speaking softly +and keeping a tight rein over himself. "Your eyes are like a startled +fawn's. Have I been too abrupt--too thoughtless and inconsiderate? +You would forgive me, love, if you knew how I have longed for you; have +yearned for this meeting as Dives yearned for water--as the condemned +yearn for reprieve. Have you no smile for me, sweetheart?--no word of +welcome for the man whose heaven is your love? You knew I would come. +You knew I loved you, Princess." + +"Yes;"--the word was breathed, rather than uttered, but he heard it, +and made a half movement forward, the light in his eyes glowing more +passionately. Still, he held himself in check; he would give her time. + +"You knew I loved you, Princess," he repeated. "Yes, you must have +known. Love like mine could not be concealed; it _must_ burn its way +through all obstacles from my heart to yours, melting and fusing them +into one. Don't try to speak yet, love, there is no need to answer +unless you wish. I can wait--for I am near you." + +Pocahontas rallied her forces resolutely, called up her pride, her +womanhood, her sense of the wrong he had done her. If she should give +way an instant--if she should yield a hair's breadth, she would be +lost. The look in his eyes, the tenderness of his voice, appeared to +sap the foundations of her resolution and to turn her heart to wax +within her. + +"Why have you come?" she wailed, her tone one of passionate reproach. +"Had you not done harm enough? Why have you come?" + +Thorne started slightly, but commanded himself. It was the former +marriage; the divorce; she felt it keenly--every woman must; some +cursed meddler had told her. + +"My darling," he answered, with patient tenderness, "you know why I +have come--why it was impossible for me to keep away. I love you, +Princess, as a man loves but once in his life. Will you come to me? +Will you be my wife?" + +The girl shook her head, and moved her hand with a gesture of denial; +words she had none. + +"I know of what you are thinking, Princess. I know the idea that has +taken possession of your mind. You have heard of my former marriage, +and you know that the woman who was my wife still lives. Is it not +so?" She bent her head in mute assent. Thorne gazed at her pale, +resolute face with his brows knit heavily, and then continued: + +"Listen to me, Princess. That woman--Ethel Ross--is my wife no longer, +even in name; she ceased to be my wife in fact two years ago. Our +lives have drifted utterly asunder. It was her will, and I acquiesced +in it, for she had never loved me, and I--when my idiotic infatuation +for her heartless, diabolical beauty passed, had ceased to love her. +At last, even my presence became a trouble to her, which she was at no +pains to conceal. The breach between us widened with the years, until +nothing remained to us but the galling strain of a useless fetter. Now +that is broken, and we are free,"--there was an exultant ring in his +voice, as though his freedom were precious to him. + +"Were you bound, or free, that night at Shirley?" questioned the girl, +slowly and steadily. + +A flush crept warmly over Thorne's dark face, and lost itself in the +waves of his hair. He realized that he would meet with more opposition +here than he had anticipated. No matter; the prize was worth fighting +for--worth winning at any cost. His determination increased with the +force opposed to it, and so did his desire. + +"In heart and thought I was free, but in _fact_ I was bound," he +acknowledged. "The words I spoke on the steps that night escaped me +unaware. I was tortured by jealousy, and tempted by love. I had no +right to speak them then; nothing can excuse or palliate the weakness +which allowed me to. I should have waited until I could come to you +untrammeled--as now. I attempt no justification of my madness, +Princess. I have no excuse but my love, and can only sue for pardon. +You will forgive me, sweetheart"--using the old word tenderly--"for the +sake of my great love. It's my only plea"--his voice took a pleading +tone as he advanced the plea hardest of all for a woman to steel her +heart against. + +Pocahontas gazed at him in bewilderment, her mind grappling with an +idea that appalled her, her face blanching with apprehension, and her +form cowering as from an expected blow. + +"Must I understand, Mr. Thorne, that love for _me_ suggested the +thought of divorcing your wife?" she questioned hoarsely--"that _I_ +came between you and caused this horrible thing? It is _not_--it _can +not_ be true. God above! Have I fallen so low?--am I guilty of this +terrible sin?" + +Thorne's quick brain recognized instantly the danger of allowing this +idea to obtain possession of her mind. Fool! he thought furiously, why +had not he been more cautious, more circumspect. Dextrously he set +himself to remove the idea or weaken its force--to prove her guiltless +in her own eyes. + +"Princess," he said, meeting the honest, agonized eyes squarely, "I +want to tell you the story of my marriage with Ethel Ross, and of my +subsequent life with her. I had not intended to harass you with it +until later--if at all; but now, I deem it best you should become +acquainted with it, and from my lips. It will explain many things." + +Then he briefly related all the miserable commonplace story. He +glossed over nothing, palliated nothing; bearing hardly now on his +wife, and again on himself, but striving to show throughout how opposed +to true marriage was this marriage, how far removed from a perfect +union was this union. Pocahontas listened with intense, strained +interest, following every word, sometimes almost anticipating them. +Her heart ached for him--ached wearily. Life had been so hard upon +him; he had suffered so. With a woman's involuntary hardness to woman, +she raised the blame from Thorne's shoulders and heaped it upon those +of his wife. Her love and her sympathy became his advocates and +pleaded for him at the bar of her judgment. Her heart yearned over him +with infinite compassion. + +If Thorne had kept silence, and left the matter there, and waited until +she should have adapted herself to the new conditions, should have +assimilated the new influences, which crowded thick upon her, it would +have been better. But he could not keep silent--he had no patience to +wait. He could not realize that the things which were as a thrice-told +tale to _him_, had an overwhelming newness for _her_. That the +influences which had molded his thought, were very far removed from the +influences which had made _her_ what she was. He could not understand +that, while the world had progressed, this isolated community had +remained stationary, and that the principles and rules of conduct among +them, still, were those which had governed _his_ world in the beginning +of the century. + +He saw that her sympathy had been aroused, that she suffered for, and +with, him, and he could not forbear from striving to push the +advantage. He went on speaking earnestly; he demonstrated that this +marriage which had proved so disastrous was in truth no marriage, and +that its annulment was just and right, for where there was no love, he +argued, there could be no marriage. With all the sophistry; with all +the subtle arguments of which he was master--and they were neither weak +nor few--he assailed her. Every power of his brilliant intellect, +every weapon of his mental armory, all the force of his indomitable +will was brought to bear upon her--and brought to bear in vain. + +Calm, pale, resolute, she faced him--her clear eyes meeting his, her +nervous hands folded tightly together. She would not give way. In +their earnestness both had risen, and they stood facing each other on +the hearth-rug, their eyes nearly on a level. The man's hand rested on +the mantle, and quivered with the intensity of his excitement; the +woman's hung straight before her, motionless, but wrung together until +the knuckles showed hard through the tense skin. She would NOT give +way. + +Thorne was startled and perplexed. Opposition he was prepared for, +argument he could meet and possibly refute, tears and reproaches he +could subdue--but dumb, quiet resistance baffled him. Suddenly he +abandoned reason, cast self-control to the winds, and gave the reins to +feeling. If he could not convince her through the head, he would try a +surer road--the heart. Though proof against argument, would she be +proof against love? He knew she loved him; he felt it in every fiber +of his being, every pulse of his heart--and he was determined to win +her at all hazards; his she must be; his she _should_ be. + +"My love!" he murmured, extending his arms with an appealing tenderness +of look and gesture. "Come to me. Lay your sweet face on my breast, +your dear arms around my neck. I need you, Princess; my heart cries +out for you, and will not be denied. I can not live without you. You +are mine--mine alone, and I claim your love; claim your life. What is +that woman? What is any woman to me, save you, my darling--you only? +My love! My love! It is my very life for which I am pleading. Have +you no pity? No love for the man whose heart is calling you to come?" + +Pocahontas shivered, and bent slightly forward--her face was white as +death, her eyes strange and troubled. The strength and fire of his +passion drew her toward him as a magnet draws steel. Was she yielding? +Would she give way? + +Suddenly she started erect again, and drew back a step. All the +emotions, prejudices, thoughts of her past life; all the principles, +scruples, influences, amid which she had been reared, crowded back on +her and asserted their power. She could _not_ do this thing. A chasm +black as the grave, hopeless as death, yawned at her feet; a barrier as +high as heaven erected itself before her. + +"I can not come," she wailed in anguish. "Have you no mercy?--no pity +for me? There is a barrier between us that I dare not level; a chasm I +can not cross." + +"There is _no_ barrier," responded Thorne, vehemently, "and I will +acknowledge none. I am a free man; you are a free woman, and there is +no law, human or divine, to keep us asunder, save the law of your own +will. If there be a chasm--which I do not see; which I swear does not +exist--_I_ will cross it. If you can not come to me, I can come to +you; and I _will_. You are _mine_, and I will hold you--here in my +arms, on my breast, in my heart. Have you, and hold you, so help me +God!" + +With a quick stride he crossed the small space between them, and stood +close, but still not touching her. + +"Have you no pity?" she moaned. + +"None," he answered hoarsely. "Have you any for me?--for us both? I +love you--how well, God knows, I was not aware until to-night--and you +love me I hope and believe. There is nothing between us save an idle +scruple, which even the censorious world does not share. I ask you to +commit no sin; to share no disgrace. I ask you to be my wife before +the face of day; before the eyes of men; in the sight of heaven!" + +Could she be his wife in the sight of heaven? It was all so strange to +her, she could not understand. Words, carelessly heard and scarcely +heeded, came back to her, and rung their changes in her brain with +ceaseless iteration. It was like a knell. + +"Nesbit?" she said wearily, using his name unconsciously, "listen and +understand me. In the eyes of the law, and of men you are free; but I +can not see it so. In my eyes you are still bound." + +"I am _not_ bound," denied Thorne, fiercely, bringing his hand down +heavily on the mantle; "whoever tells you that I am, lies, and the +truth is not in him. I've told you all--and yet not all. Ethel Ross, +the woman who was my wife--whom _you_ say is my wife still--is about to +marry again. To join her life--as free and separate from mine as +though we had never met--to the life of another man. Isn't that +enough? Can't you see how completely every tie between us is severed?" + +Pocahontas shook her head. "I can not understand you, and you will not +understand me," she said mournfully; "her sin will not lessen our sin; +nor her unholy marriage make ours pure and righteous." + +Thorne stamped his foot. "Do you wish to madden me?" he exclaimed; +"there is no sin, I tell you; nor would our marriage be unholy. You +are torturing us both for nothing on God's earth but a scruple. I've +argued, reasoned, and pleaded with you, and you refuse to weigh the +argument, to listen to the reason, to yield to the persuasion. You are +hard, and opinionated, and obstinate. You set up your individual +judgment against the verdict of the world and deem it infallible. You +are hard to yourself, and cruelly hard to me, for, as there is a God in +heaven, I believe you love me, even as I love you. Oh, my love! my +love!" his voice melted, his arms closed around her. "Why do you try +me beyond my strength? Why are you so cruel to us both? See; I hold +you safely; your heart beats on mine; your dear face is on my breast. +Stay with me, my darling, my own, my wife;" and soft, clinging +passionate kisses pressed down on hair, and cheek, and lips; kisses +that burned like flame, that thrilled like strong wine. + +For a moment Pocahontas lay quietly in his arms, lulled into +quiescence. Then she wrenched herself free, and moved away from him. +It had been said of her that she could be hard upon occasion; the +occasion had arisen, and she _was_ hard. + +"Go!" she said, her face wan as ashes, but her voice firm; "it is you +who are cruel; you who are blind and obstinate. You will neither see +nor understand why this thing may not be. I have showed you my +thought, and you will not bend; implored you to have pity, and you are +merciless. And yet you talk of love! You love me, and would sacrifice +me to your love; love me, and would break down the bulwarks I have been +taught to consider righteous, to gratify your love. I do not +understand; love seemed to me so different, so noble and unselfish. +Leave me; I am tired; I want to think it out alone." + +Thorne stood silent, his head bent in thought. "Yes," he said +presently; "it will be better so. You are overwrought, and your mind +is worn with excitement; you need rest. To-morrow, next week, the week +after, this matter will wear a different aspect. I can wait, and I +will come again. It will be different then." + +"It will never be different," the voice was low; the gray eyes had a +hopeless look. + +Thorne repeated his assertion in the gentle, persistent tone of one who +is patient with the unreasonableness of a frightened child. His +determination to win success never faltered, rather it hardened with +opposition into adamant; but he was beginning to realize his blunder. +He had overwhelmed her; had brought about an upheaval of her world so +violent that, in her bewilderment, her dread of chaos, she +instinctively laid hold on the old supports and clung to them with +desperation. She must have time to think, to familiarize herself with +the strange emotions, to adapt herself to the changed conditions. Only +one other thing would he say. He held in reserve a card which he knew, +ere now, had proved all powerful with conscientious women. To gain his +end, he would stop at nothing; he took both her hands in his, and +played his card deliberately. + +"Think over it well," he said, "weigh every argument, test every +scruple. My life is in your hands. I am not a religious man, nor a +good man, but you can make me both. Give me the heaven that I crave, +the heaven of your love, and I will be by it ennobled into faith in +that other heaven, of which it will be the foretaste. But refuse; deny +the soul that cries out to you; thrust aside the hands that seek to +clasp you, as the truest, noblest, holiest thing they have ever +touched, and--on your head be it. I have placed the responsibility in +your hands and there it rests." + +With a lingering look into her eyes and a fervent pressure of her +hands, he turned and slowly left the room. + +Back to the mind of the girl, standing motionless where he had left +her, came, unwished and unbidden, the memory of a summer night out +yonder beside the flowing river. She seemed to see again, the swaying +of the branches in the moonlight, and to hear the lulling wash of the +water against the shore; to hear also, a quiet, manly voice fighting +down its pain, lest the knowledge of it should wound her, saying, +simply and bravely: "Don't be unhappy about me, dear. I'll worry +through the pain in time, or grow accustomed to it. It's tough just at +first, but I'll pull through somehow. It shall not spoil my life +either, although it must mar it; a man must be a pitiful fellow who +lets himself go to the bad because the woman he loves won't have him. +God means every man to hold up his own weight in this world. I'd as +soon knock a woman down as throw the blame of a wasted life upon her." + +Plain words, poorly arranged and simply spoken, for the man who uttered +them was not clever; but brave, manly words, for all that. The girl +turned from the unwelcome memory with a sharp, impatient sigh that was +almost a groan. It pained her. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +The next day Thorne quietly returned to New York, without making any +attempt to see or communicate with Pocahontas again. He had considered +the situation earnestly, and decided that it would be his wisest +course. Like a skilled general, he recognized the value of delay. +Failing to carry the citadel by assault, he resorted to strategy. In +the girl's love for him, he possessed a powerful ally; there was a +traitor in the camp of his adversary, and sooner or later it would be +betrayed into his hands; of this he was convinced, and the conviction +fortified him to trust the result to time. Pride and principle were in +arms now, holding love in check, but it would not be so always; soon +her woman's heart would speak, would wield an influence more powerful +and resistless, from the concentration engendered by repression. Now, +too, she was braced by the excitement of personal resistance; she was +measuring her will, with his will, her strength with his strength. Let +him withdraw for a time, and what would follow? The outside pressure, +the immediate need of concentrated effort removed, there would +inevitably ensue a state of collapse; purpose and prejudice would sink +exhausted, the strain on the will relax, the weapons fall from the +nerveless hands. Then the heart would rally its forces, would collect +its strength for the field; external conflict suspended, internal +strife would commence, fierce, cruel and relentless as internecine +struggles ever are. Was there any doubt of the result of the battle? +It only needed time. Time, quietude, and earnest thought, free from +the disturbing, stimulating power of his presence. + +He could wait; every affection of her loving, constant heart, every +fiber of her self-sacrificing nature, would fight for him; prejudices, +even the most deeply-rooted, must yield, in time, to love. When he +should come again it would be to claim his victory. + +No thought of abandoning the pursuit crossed his brain; no impulse of +ruth stirred his heart. Did she suffer? So did he--keenly, cruelly. +Let her end this torture for them both; let her lay aside these +senseless scruples, and place her hand in his. His arms were open to +her, his heart yearning for her; let her come and anchor in the sure +haven of his love. + +Pocahontas told her mother, very quietly, of Thorne's visit, his +proposal, and her rejection of it; just the bare facts, without comment +or elaboration. But Mrs. Mason had a mother's insight and could read +between the lines; she did not harass her daughter with many words, +even of approval; or with questions; she simply drew the sweet, young +face down to her bosom a moment, and held it there with tender kisses. +Nor did Berkeley, to whom his mother communicated the fact, volunteer +any comment to his sister. After what had passed, Thorne's proposal +was not a surprise, and to them the girl's answer was a foregone +conclusion. Poor child! the brother thought impatiently, the mother +wistfully, how much bitterness would have been spared her could she +only have loved Jim Byrd. + +During the weeks that followed Thorne's second return north, the two +families were thrown together more and more intimately. Blanche's +engagement and Warner's increased illness served to break down all +restraints. All through the winter the boy had steadily lost ground, +and as the spring progressed, instead of rallying as they hoped, his +decline became more rapid. The best advice was had, but science could +only bear the announcement of bereavement; there was nothing to be +done, the doctors said, save to alleviate pain, and let the end come +peacefully; it was needless to worry the boy with change, or bootless +experiments. Even to the mother's willfully blinded eyes, and +falsely-fed hopes, conviction came at last that her son's days were +numbered. + +Berkeley, Royall and other of the neighboring gentlemen took turns in +aiding with the nursing and the night-watches, as is the custom in +southern country neighborhoods where professional nurses are unknown. + +Of all the kindly friends that watched and tended him through long +weeks of illness, the one that Warner learned to love the best was +Berkeley Mason. There was a thoughtful strength in the nature of the +man who had suffered, the soldier who had endured, which the weaker +nature recognized and rested on. To the general, during this time of +trouble, the young man became, in very truth, a son; the old debt of +kindness was canceled, and a new account opened with a change in the +balance. + +As is usual in cases of lingering consumption, the end was very +sudden--so sudden, in fact, that Norma, still away with her northern +friends, received the telegram too late for word or look or farewell +kiss. She was traveling with Mrs. Vincent and the message followed her +from place to place. + +On a still, beautiful May morning, Warner was laid to rest in the +Lanarth graveyard beside poor Temple Mason. It was the boy's own +request, and his mother felt constrained to comply with it, although +she would have preferred interring the remains of her child beside +those of her own people at Greenwood. The story of the young life +beating itself out against prison bars, had taken strong hold of the +lad's imagination, and the fancy grew that he too would sleep more +sweetly under the shadow of the old cedars in the land the young +soldier had loved so well. + +Norma and Pocahontas stood near each other beside the new-made grave, +and as they quitted the inclosure, their hands met for an instant +coldly. Pocahontas tried not to harbor resentment, but she could not +forget whose hand it had been that had struck her the first bitter blow. + +After Warner's death, Mrs. Smith appeared to collapse, mentally as well +as bodily. She remained day after day shut in his chamber, brooding +silently and rejecting with dumb apathy all sympathy and consolation. +Her strength and appetite declined, and her interest in life deserted +her, leaving a hopeless quiescence that was inexpressibly pitiful. Her +husband, in alarm for her life and reason, hurriedly decided to break +up the establishment at Shirley, and remove her for a time from +surroundings that constantly reminded her of her loss. + +In the beginning of June, the move was made, the house closed, the +servants dismissed, and the care of the estate turned over to Berkeley. +With the dawning of summer, the birds of passage winged their flight +northward. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +There comes a time in human affairs, whether of nations or individuals, +when a dull exhausted calm appears to fall upon them--a period of +repose, a lull after the excitement of hurried events, a pause in which +to draw breath for the renewal of the story. Grateful are these +interludes, and necessary for the preservation of true equipoise, but +they are not interesting, and in novels all description of them is +carelessly skipped over. In stories we want events, not lingerings. + +The summer passed quietly for the family at Lanarth, broken only by the +usual social happenings, visits from the "Byrd girls," as they were +still called, with their husbands and little ones; a marriage, a +christening, letters from Jim and Susie, and measles among the little +Garnetts. In August, Pocahontas and her mother went for a month to +Piedmont, Virginia, to try the medicinal waters for the latter's +rheumatism, and after their return home, Berkeley took a holiday and +ran up to the Adirondacks to see Blanche. + +Poor Mrs. Smith did not rally as her family had hoped, and the +physicians--as is customary when a case baffles their skill--all +recommended further and more complete change. They must take her +abroad, and try what the excitement of foreign travel would do toward +preventing her from sinking into confirmed invalidism. General Smith, +who had abandoned every care and interest for the purpose of devoting +himself to his wife, embraced the proposal with eagerness, and insisted +on the experiment being tried as speedily as possible. + +Blanche could not help some murmurs, both inwardly and to Berkeley, at +the long separation in store for them; and the lover, although himself +a little rueful, heartened her up with bright prophecies for their +future. An immediate marriage for them was out of the question, for +since Warner's death Mrs. Smith clung to her younger daughter with +absolute dependence. The last of September was decided on for sailing, +as that would allow General Smith time to enter Percival at school, and +to complete other necessary arrangements before the family departure. +The management of Shirley would remain in Berkeley's hands, and the +house would continue closed until the return of the travelers. + +To Nesbit Thorne, the summer had appeared interminable, and every +golden hour had been shod with lead. He had passed the season partly +in the Adirondacks with his relatives and partly in New York; but he +was always oppressed with the same miserable unrest, the same weary +longing. It would appear, at times, impossible for him to hold to his +resolution of waiting until after the re-marriage of his _ci-devant_ +wife, before again seeking Pocahontas. He yearned to be with her, to +hold her hands, and gaze into her eyes, so intensely at times, that it +required the utmost exertion of his will to prevent himself from +boarding the first southward-bound train. He was forced continually to +remind himself that if he should yield to the impulse, he would be +guilty of egregious folly--having waited so long, he could surely wait +a few weeks longer. Ethel's marriage would dissipate every shadow of a +tie between them, and with that fact fully established, Pocahontas +_must_ hear him. + +In deference to Cumberland prejudice, Mrs. Thorne's marriage had been +deferred until September--to that lady's great annoyance. She saw no +reason for delay, nor any necessity for humoring the Cumberland +old-fogyism, and in delicate ambiguous terms she conveyed this opinion +to her lover, and discovered, to her surprise and indignation, that he +disagreed with her. Some concession was due to the feelings of his +family, and he did not wish to be hurried; on this ground, he +intrenched himself and defied the world to move him. When Cecil made a +point, he held to it with the obstinacy characteristic of mediocrity, +and Ethel, not being exactly in a position to dictate, and requiring +moreover some portion of the Cumberland countenance, was forced to +acquiesce. + +Some weeks before the day appointed for her marriage, Ethel removed +herself and her belongings to the house of a poor and plastic aunt, who +was in the habit of allowing herself to be run into any mold her niece +should require. According to their agreement, Ethel gave her whilom +husband due notice of her plans, and Thorne at once removed the child +to Brooklyn, and placed him under the care of a sister of his father's, +a gentle elderly widow who had known sorrow. His house he put in the +hands of an agent to rent or sell, furnished, only removing such +articles as had belonged to his parents. The house was hateful to him, +and he felt that should the beautiful, new life of which he dreamed +ever dawn for him, it must be set amid different surroundings from +those which had framed his matrimonial failure. + +Still in deference to the Cumberland prejudice, the re-marriage of +Ethel Thorne took place very quietly. It was a morning wedding, graced +only by the presence of a few indifferent relatives, and a small crowd +of curious friends. The two Misses Cumberland, handsome, heavy-browed +women, after much discussion in the family bosom, and some fraternal +persuasion, had allowed themselves to be seduced into attending the +obnoxious nuptials, and shedding the light of the family countenance +upon the ill-doing pair. Very austere and forbidding they looked as +they seated themselves, reprobatively, in a pew far removed from the +chancel, and their light was no better than the veriest darkness. + +Twelve hours after the marriage had been published to the world, +another marked paper was speeding southward, addressed this time to +Pocahontas, and accompanied by a thick, closely written, letter. +Thorne had decided that it would be better to send a messenger before, +this time, to prepare the way for him. In his letter Thorne touched +but lightly on the point at issue between them, thinking it better to +take it for granted that her views had modified, if not changed. The +strength of his cause lay in his love, his loneliness, his yearning +need of her. On these themes he dwelt with all the eloquence of which +he was master, and the letter closed with a passionate appeal, in which +he poured out the long repressed fire of his love: "My darling, tell me +I may come to you--or rather tell me nothing; I will understand and +interpret your silence rightly. You are proud, my beautiful love, and +in all things I will spare you--in all things be gentle to you; in all +things, save this--I can not give you up--I _will_ not give you up. I +will wait here for another week, and if I do not hear from you, I will +start for Virginia at once--with joy and pride and enduring +thankfulness." + +Pocahontas took the paper to her mother's room, the letter she put +quietly away. She would answer it, but not yet; at night--when the +house should be quiet she would answer it. + +The lines containing the brief announcement were at the head of the +list: + + +MARRIED. + +"CUMBERLAND-THORNE.--At the church of the Holy Trinity, September 21st, +18--, by the Rev. John Sylvestus, Cecil Cumberland to Ethel Ross +Thorne; both of this city." + + +Mrs. Mason laid the paper on the little stand beside her chair. "My +daughter," she said, looking up at the girl seriously, "this can make +no difference." + +"No, mother," very quietly, "no difference; but I thought you ought to +know." + +In her own room, at night, when the house was still, the girl sat with +the letter in her lap thinking. The moonlight poured in through the +open window and made a map on the floor, whereon slender shadows traced +rivers, mountains and boundaries. In the trees outside, the night +insects chirped, and bats darted and circled in the warm air. + +If only she could think that this made a difference. She was so weary +of the struggle. The arguments which formerly sustained her had, with +ceaseless iteration, lost their force; her battle-worn mind longed to +throw down its arms in unconditional surrender. Her up-bringing had +been so different; this thing was not regarded by the world in the same +light as it appeared to her; was she over-strained, opinionated, +censorious? Nesbit had called her so--was he right? Who was _she_, to +set up her feeble judgment against the world's verdict--to condemn and +criticise society's decision? Divorce must be--even Scripture allowed +that; a limb must be sacrificed sometimes that a life might be saved. +True, the process had always appeared to her, in her ignorance, an +operation of cruel anguish, from which the patient came halt, or lame, +or blind for life; but what if she should be wrong? What if the +present crab-like propensity for the renewal of the missing part was +the natural and sensible condition. This wicked woman--this wife who +had recklessly thrown aside life's choicest gift--was happy; she had +replaced her lopped-off limb with a new one, and it was well with her. +Norma had said long ago that, "any woman who trifled with her happiness +because of a scruple was a fool." Was Norma right? Was her hesitation +senseless, doltish folly? + +The boundaries of the moonlight shifted; a long irregular cape, like a +shining finger, stretched out across the floor and touched the hem of +her dress. From behind the screen in the fireplace came a little +sound, as though a mouse were rustling fragments of torn paper. + +If she could only recognize that this marriage _had_ made a difference. +It was so wearisome, this strife with a heart that would not admit +defeat, a love that fought on and would not die. What was required of +her?--nothing; nothing save to sit with folded hands and let happiness +flood her life like sunshine--only to lay away the letter in her desk +and wait silently for her lover to come to her. Her lover--the man +whose influence had changed the monotonous calm of existence into the +pulsing passion of living--the man who loved her; whom she loved. No +words were needed--only silence; he was so thoughtful for her, so +anxious to spare her; only silence, and in a little while his arms +would infold her; his beautiful eyes, heavy with tenderness, gaze deep +into hers; his sweet, passionate kisses burn upon her lips. + +The radiant finger stole softly up her dress, across her lap, and made +a little pool of brightness in the heart of which the letter lay; +outside in the dove-cote a pigeon cooed sleepily to his mate. + +What was that tale of long ago that was coming strangely back to her? +A girl, one whom they all knew and loved, had been separated from her +husband after several years of misery, bravely borne. Her husband had +been a confirmed drunkard, and in his cups was as one possessed with +devils. They had grieved over Clare, and when her husband's brutality +grew such that her brother interfered and insisted on her procuring a +divorce for the protection of herself and her children, they had felt +that it was right; and while they deplored the necessity, they had +sided with Clare throughout. But when, two years later, wedding cards +had come from Clare, from some place in the West, whither she had moved +with her children; it had been a grievous shock, for the drunkard still +lived. It had seemed a strange and monstrous thing, and their judgment +had been severe--their censure scathing. Poor Clare! She understood +her temptation better now. Poor little Clare! + +What was it Jim had said? The men had been guarded in the expression +of their opinion before her; they were fastidious in conversation +before women. This, he had said in an under-tone to Berkeley, but she +had caught it, and caught also the scorn of the hazel eye, and knew +that the lip curled under the brown mustache. He had said--"To a woman +of innate purity the thing would be impossible. There is a coarseness +in the situation which is revolting." + +What would he think of her? She was weighing the matter--canvassing +its possibility. Was her nature deteriorating? Was she growing +coarser, less pure? Would her old friend, whose standard was so high, +despise her? Would she be lowered in the eyes of those whose influence +and opinions had, heretofore, molded her life? The associations of +years are not uprooted and cast aside in days or in months. +Responsibilities engendered by the past environed her, full-grown, +comprehensible, insistent; responsibilities which might be engendered +by the future, lay in her mind a tiny germ in which the embryo life had +scarcely begun to stir. The duty to the old life seemed to her plain +and clear; a beaten track along which she might safely travel. The +duty to another life which might, in time, be equally plain and clear, +was now a bewildering mist through which strange shapes passed, like +phantasmagoria. She could not think; her mind was benumbed; right and +wrong, apparently, had changed places and commingled so, that, for the +time, their identity was confused, indistinguishable: she could not +guide herself, as yet; she could only hold blindly to the old supports. + +The silver finger had lifted itself from her lap and rested on her +breast, forming a shining pathway from her heart, through the open +window, out into the silence and beauty of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Winter again; the city dull, listless and sodden of aspect in the gloom +of a January evening. In the country, and nature's quiet places, the +dusk was throwing a veil over the cheerlessness of earth, as a friend +covers a friend's deficiencies with love; but here, in the haunts of +men, garish electric lights made plain the misery. The air was a +depressing compound which defied analysis; but was apparently composed +of equal parts of snow, drizzle, and stinging sleet; the wind caught it +in sudden whirls, and dashed it around corners and into the eyes and +the coat collars of wayfarers with gusty malevolence. + +The streets were comparatively deserted, only such people being abroad +as could not help themselves, and these plodded along with bent heads, +and silent curses on the night. Even the poor creatures who daily +"till the field of human sympathy" kept close within the shelter of +four walls, no matter how forlorn, and left the elements to hold +Walpurgis night in the thoroughfares alone. + +In a comfortable easy chair, in the handsome parlor of an elegant +up-town mansion, sat Ethel Cumberland, reading a novel. Since her +second marriage, life had gone pleasantly with her and she was content. +Cecil never worried her about things beyond her comprehension, or +required other aliments for his spiritual sustenance than that which +she was able and willing to furnish; he was a commonplace man and his +desires were commonplace--easily understood and satisfied. He liked a +pretty wife, a handsome house, a good dinner with fine wine and jolly +company; he liked high-stepping horses, a natty turn-out, and the smile +of Vanity Fair. Ethel's tastes were similar, and their lives so far +had fitted into each other without a single crevice. The Cumberlands +were grim and unbending, it is true, and after that one concession to +fraternal feeling, made no more; they held themselves rigidly aloof +from the pair, and invested all intercourse with paralyzing formality. +Ethel did not care a pin for them or their opinion; if they chose to be +old-fogyish and disagreeable, they were quite welcome to indulge their +fancy. As long as society smiled upon her, Madam Ethel was superbly +indifferent to the Cumberland frown. + +Cecil worried over it, as men will worry, who have been accustomed to +the adulation of their womenkind, when that adulation is withdrawn. He +grumbled and fumed over their "damned nonsense," as he called it, and +bored his wife no little with conjectures as to their reasons for being +stiff and unpleasant when nobody else was. + +Since her return from her wedding trip, which had lengthened to four +months amid the delights of Paris, Mrs. Cumberland had found time for +only one short visit to her little son. There had been such an +accumulation of social duties and engagements, that pilgrimages over to +Brooklyn were out of the question; and besides, she disliked Mrs. +Creswell, Thorne's aunt, who had charge of the boy, and who had the bad +taste, Ethel felt sure, to disapprove of her. It was too bad of Nesbit +to put the child so far away, and with a person whom she did not like; +it amounted to a total separation, for of course it would be impossible +for her to make such a journey often. When her time should be less +occupied, she would write to Nesbit about it; meanwhile, her maternal +solicitude found ample pacification in sending a servant across at +intervals to carry toys and confectionery to the little fellow, and to +inquire after his welfare. + +The portieres were drawn aside to admit Mr. Cumberland in smoking +jacket and slippers, yawning and very much bored. He was a large, +heavy looking man, very dependent on outside things for his +entertainment. Failing to attract his wife's attention, he lounged +over to the window, and drew aside the velvet curtain. The atmosphere +was heavy, and the light in front of the house appeared to hold itself +aloof from the environment in a sulky, self-contained way; all down the +street, the other lamps looked like the ghosts of lights that had +burned and died in past ages. + +A little girl with a bag of apples in her frost-bitten hands came +hastily around the corner, and, going with her head down against the +sleet, butted into an elderly gentleman, with a big umbrella, who was +driving along in an opposite direction. The gentleman gave the child +an indignant shove which caused her to seat herself violently upon the +pavement; the bag banged hard against the bricks and delivered up its +trust, and the apples scudded away into the gutter. + +Cecil laughed amusedly as the little creature picked herself up crying, +and proceeded to institute search for the missing treasure. A kindly +policeman, who doubtless had children of his own, stopped on his beat, +and helped her, wiping the mud from the rescued fruit with his +handkerchief, and securing all again with a newspaper and a stout twine +string which he took from his pocket; then they went away together, the +officer carrying the bundle and the child trotting contentedly in the +lee of him. They seemed to be old acquaintances. + +Nothing else happened along to amuse him, so Mr. Cumberland let the +velvet folds fall back in their place and came over to the fire. He +had been suffering with a heavy cold, and found confinement to the +house in the last degree irksome. His wife was too much engrossed with +her book to be willing to lay it aside for his entertainment, and he +spurned her suggestion of the evening paper, so there was nothing for +it but to sulk over a cigar and audibly curse the weather. + +A sharp ring at the door-bell, tardily answered by a servant, and then +footsteps approached the parlor door. Husband and wife looked up with +interest--with expectation. Was it a visitor? No; only the servant +with a telegram which he handed Mr. Cumberland, and then withdrew. +Cecil turned the thin envelope in his hand inquisitively. He was fond +of having every thing pass through his own hands--of knowing all the +ins and outs, the minutiae of daily happenings. "What is it?" +questioned Ethel, indolently. + +"A dispatch for you. Shall I open it?" + +"If you like. I hate dispatches. They always suggest unpleasant +possibilities. It's a local, so I guess it's from my aunt, about that +rubbishing dinner of hers." + +Cecil tore open the envelope and read the few words it contained with a +lengthening visage; then he let his hand fall, and stared blankly +across at his wife. + +"It's from that fellow! and it's about the child," he said, uneasily. + +"What fellow? What child? Not mine! Give it to me quickly, Cecil. +How slow you are!" And she snatched the telegram from his unresisting +hand. Hastily she scanned the words, her breath coming in gasps, her +fingers trembling so that she could scarcely hold the paper. "The +child is dying. Come at once!" That was all, and the message was +signed Nesbit Thorne. Short, curt, peremptory, as our words are apt to +be in moments of intense emotion; a bald fact roughly stated. + +For a moment Ethel Cumberland sat stunned, with pallid face and shaking +hands, from which the message slipped and fluttered to the carpet. +Then she sprang to her feet in wild excitement, an instinct aroused in +her breast which even animals know when their young are in danger. + +"Cecil!" she cried, sharply, "don't you hear? My child! My baby is +dying! Why do you stand there staring at me? I must go--you must take +me to him now, this instant, or it will be too late. Don't you +understand? My darling--my boy is dying!" and she burst into a passion +of grief, wringing her hands and wailing. "Go! send for a carriage. +There's not a moment to lose. Oh, my baby!--my baby!" + +"You can't go out in this storm. It's sleeting heavily, and I've been +ill. I can't let you go all that distance with only a maid, and how am +I to turn out in such weather?" objected Mr. Cumberland, who, when he +was opposed to a thing, was an adept in piling up obstacles. "I tell +you it's impossible, Ethel. It's madness, on such a night as this." + +"Who cares for the storm?" raved Ethel, whose feelings, if evanescent, +were intense. "I _will_ go, Cecil! I don't want you, I'll go by +myself. Nothing shall stop me. If it stormed fire and blood I should +go all the same. I'll walk--I'll _crawl_ there, before I will stay +here and let my boy die without me. He is _my_ baby--my _own_ child, I +tell you, Cecil!--if he isn't yours." + +Of this fact Cecil Cumberland needed no reminder. It was a thorn that +pricked and stung even his dull nature--for the child's father lived. +To a jealous temperament it is galling to be reminded of a predecessor +in a wife's affections, even when the grave has closed over him; if the +man still lives, it is intolerable. + +He was not a brute, and he knew that he must yield to his wife's +pressure--that he had no choice but to yield; but he stood for a moment +irresolute, staring at her with lowering brows, a hearty curse on +living father and dying child slowly formulating in his breast. + +As he turned to leave the room to give the necessary orders, a carriage +drove rapidly to the door and stopped, and there was a vigorous pull at +the bell. Thorne had provided against all possible delay. Then the +question arose of who should accompany her, and they found that there +was not a single available woman in the house. It was impossible to +let her go alone, and Cumberland, with the curses rising from his heart +to his lips, was forced, in very manhood, to go with her himself. + +In Brooklyn Mrs. Creswell met them herself at the door, and appeared +surprised--as well she might--to see Mr. Cumberland. She motioned +Ethel toward the staircase, and then with a formal inclination of the +head, ushered her more unwelcome guest into a small parlor where there +was a fire and a lamp burning. Here she left him alone. Her house was +in the suburbs, and there was nowhere else for him to go at that hour +of the night and in that terrible storm. + +The room was warm and cheerful, a child's toys lay scattered on floor +and sofa, a little hat and coat were on the table, beside a cigar case +and a crumpled newspaper. There was nothing for the man to do save to +stare around and walk the floor impatiently, longing for death to +hasten with his work, so that the false position might be ended. + +Guided by unerring instinct, Ethel went straight to the chamber where +her child lay dying--perhaps already dead. Outside the door she paused +with her hand pressed hard on her throbbing heart. + +It was a piteous sight that met her view as the door swung open, +rendered doubly piteous by the circumstances. A luxurious room, a +brooding silence, a tiny white bed on which a little child lay, slowly +and painfully breathing his life away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +There were two persons in the room besides the little one: Thorne and +the doctor, a grave, elderly man, who bowed to the lady, and, after a +whispered word with Thorne, withdrew. Ethel sank on her knees beside +the low bed and stretched out yearning arms to the child; the +mother-love awakened at last in her heart and showing itself in her +face. + +"My baby!" she moaned, "my little one, don't you know your mother? +Open your beautiful eyes, my darling, and look at me; it is your mother +who is calling you!" Her bonnet had fallen off, the rich wrap and furs +were trailing on the carpet where she had flung them; her arms were +gathered close around the little form, her kisses raining on the pallid +face, the golden hair. + +The sleet beat on the window panes; the air of the room stirred as +though a dark wing pressed it; the glow of the fire looked angry and +fitful; a great, black lump of coal settled down in the grate and +broke; in its sullen heart blue flames leaped and danced weirdly. The +woman knelt beside the bed, and the man stood near her. + +In the room there was silence. The child's eyes unclosed, a gleam of +recognition dawned in them, he whispered his mother's name and put his +hand up to her neck. Then his look turned to his father, his lips +moved. Thorne knelt beside the pillow and bent his head to listen; the +little voice fluttered and broke, the hand fell away from Ethel's neck, +the lids drooped over the beautiful eyes. Thorne raised the tiny form +in his arms, the golden head rested on his breast, Ethel leaned over +and clasped the child's hands in hers. A change passed over the little +face--the last change--the breath came in feeble, fluttering sighs, the +pulse grew weaker, weaker still, the heart ceased beating, the end had +come. + +Gently, peacefully, with his head on his father's breast, his hands in +his mother's clasp, the innocent spirit had slipped from its mortal +sheath, and the waiting angel had tenderly received it. + +Thorne laid the child gently down upon the pillows, pressing his hand +over the exquisite eyes, his lips to the ones that would never pay back +kisses any more; then he rose and stood erect. Ethel had risen also, +and confronted him, terror, grief, and bewilderment, fighting for +mastery in her face--in her heart. Half involuntarily, she stretched +out her hands, and made a movement as though she would go to him; half +involuntarily he extended his arms to receive her; then, with a +shuddering sob, her arms fell heavily to her sides, and he folded his +across his breast. + +Down below, pacing the floor, in hot impatience to be gone, was the +other man, waiting with smoldering jealousy and fierce longing for the +end. And, outside, the snow fell heavily, with, ever and anon, a wild +lash of bitter sleet; the earth cowered under her white pall, hiding +from the storm, and the wind sobbed and moaned as it swept through the +leafless trees like a creature wailing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +The south of France. There is music in the very words--sunshine, +poetry, and a sense of calm; a suggestion of warmth and of infinite +delight. No wonder pain, care and invalidism, flock there, from less +favored climes, for comfort and healing; returning, year after year, to +rest beneath the shadow of olive and ilex, and to dream the luscious +days away beside the blue waters of the Mediterranean, drinking in +strength and peace with every far-reaching gaze into the cloudless +azure of the southern sky, every deep-drawn breath of the sunny +southern air. + +Mrs. Smith grew daily stronger, more like herself. Time, and care, and +ceaseless affection, had wrought their beneficent work, and mind and +body were recovering a healthier tone; her interest revived, and her +hold on life renewed itself. As the weeks drifted into months, her +condition became so materially improved that the anxiety of her family +subsided and left room for other thoughts and interests; and finally +her health was sufficiently re-established to admit of her husband's +leaving them in the picturesque French village, while he returned to +America. + +In the quaint little village, time glided softly by on golden-slippered +feet, the peaceful monotony broken only by little jaunts to neighboring +hamlets, the arrival and departure of the mails, and long, blissful +sails on the deep blue sea. Blanche's sweet face and gentle ways +speedily won the simple hearts of the fisher-folks, and her letters +were filled with anecdotes of her village _proteges_, and their +picturesque life. And a steamer would have been necessary to convey +away the floral and aquatic treasures heaped on her by the kindly +peasants and their little brown-legged children. + +The family would winter abroad, and return to America in the spring for +the wedding, which Blanche had decided should take place in June. June +was a lovely month, she thought, past all the uncertainty of spring, +and with the glory of summer beyond it. + +Some weeks after General Smith's return to New York, Nesbit Thorne +joined his relatives in the pretty Mediterranean village. The general +had found his nephew so changed, so worn in mind and body, that the +kindly old soldier became seriously alarmed, and insisted on trying the +remedy uppermost in his mind. He had come, with unswerving faith, to +regard the south of France as an unfailing sanitarium, and he took his +nephew promptly in hand, and gave him no peace until he consented to go +abroad, never leaving him until he had secured his stateroom, and seen +him embarked on his voyage. + +Thorne went indifferently enough, partly to escape his uncle's +persistence, and partly because all places were alike, all equally +wearisome to him. He cherished also a hope of hearing, through +Blanche, some tidings of the woman who still possessed him like a spell. + +When he first joined them, Norma's waning hopes flickered up, in a +final effort at revivification, but not for long. That her cousin +should be moody, listless and thoroughly unhinged, did not surprise +her, since the trials through which he had recently passed were +sufficient to have tried a more robust physique than his. She set +herself to interest and cheer him, and, at first, was in a measure +successful; for Thorne--always fond of Norma, observed her efforts and +exerted himself to a responsive cheerfulness, often feigning an +interest he was far from feeling, in order to avoid disappointing her. +But as he grew accustomed to her ministrations, the effort relaxed and +he fell into gloom and bitterness once more. + +There was in the man a sense of wrong, as well as failure. Life had +dealt hardly with him--the bitterness had been wrung out to him to the +very dregs. In all things--whether his intentions had been noble or +ignoble, he had alike failed. He could not understand it. In his +eyes, the conduct of the two women whose influence had been potent in +his life, while springing from different causes, had resulted in the +same effect--uncompromising hardness toward _him_. The diverse +properties of the solutions had made no appreciable difference in the +crystallization. + +His love for Pocahontas had suffered no diminution; rather, it had +increased. His longing for her presence, for her love, was so great at +times, that the thought would come to him to end the intolerable pain +by stopping forever the beating of the heart that would not break. + +Her second refusal had been a cruel blow to him. He had seemed to +himself so patient, so tenderly considerate; he had made allowance for +the conservatism, the old world principles and prejudices amid which +she had been reared; he had given her time to weigh and consider and +plead. That the verdict should have gone against him, admitted, in his +mind, but of one conclusion--Pocahontas did not love him. Had she +loved him, she _must_ have proved responsive; love, as he understood +it, did not crucify itself for a principle; it was more prone to break +barriers than to erect them. And this point of hers was no principle; +it was, at noblest, an individual conscientious scruple, and to the man +of the world it appeared the narrowest of bigotry. + +His mind slowly settled to the conviction that she had never loved him +as he had loved her--as he still loved her. Then began a change for +the worse. The doubt of her love begot other doubts--a grisly brood of +them--doubt of truth, doubt of generosity and courage, doubt of +disinterestedness, doubt of womanhood. Thorne was getting in a bad +way. Over the smoldering fires of his heart a crust of cynicism began +to form and harden, powdered thick with the ashes of bitterness. What +was the worth of love?--_he_ had found it but a fair-weather friend. A +storm--less than a storm--a cloud, though but as big as a man's hand, +had sent the frail thing skurrying to cover. All ended in self--the +_ego_ dominated the world. Righteousness and unrighteousness arrived +at the same result. The good called it self-sacrifice, and blinded and +glorified themselves; the bad were less hypocritical; _they_ gave it no +sounding name and sought it openly. Self--from first to last, the same +under all names and all disguises. Nay, the wicked were truer than the +good, for the self-seeker inflicted no lasting injury on any save +himself, while the ardor with which the self-immolator flourished the +sacrificial knife imperiled other vitals than his own. + +Truly, Thorne was getting into a very bad way. His was not the nature +that emits sweetness when bruised; it cankered and got black spots +through it. And he knew no physician to whom he could go for healing; +no power, greater than his own, to set his disjointed life straight. +Love and faith, alike, stood afar off. The waters of desolation +encompassed his soul, without a sign of olive branch or dove. + +Norma, watching him with the eyes of her heart, as well as those of her +understanding, learned something of all this. Thorne did not tell her, +indeed he talked little in the days they spent together, walking or +sitting on the warm dry sand of the coast, and of himself not at all. +His pain was a prisoner, and his breast its Bastile. + +But Norma learned it, all the same, and learned, too, that never while +that stormy heart beat in a living breast would it beat for her. She +faced the conclusion squarely, accepted it, and took her resolution. +Norma was a proud woman, and she never flinched; the world should know +nothing of her pain, should never guess that her life held aught of +disappointment. + +A letter from Blanche to Berkeley, written within the following month, +contained the result of Norma's resolution. + +"You will be surprised," Blanche wrote, "to hear of Norma's sudden +marriage to Hugh Castleton, which took place three days ago, at the +house of the American Minister here in Paris. We were amazed--at least +mamma and I were--when Hugh joined us here, and, after a long interview +with Norma, informed us that he had cabled father for consent and that +the ceremony was to take place almost immediately. Hugh, as perhaps +you know, is a brother of Mrs. Vincent, Norma's intimate friend, and he +has been in love with Norma time out of mind. I do not like the +marriage, and feel troubled and sick at heart about it. It has been so +hastily arranged, and Norma isn't one bit in love with her husband, and +don't pretend to be. Hugh is patient and devoted to her, which is my +strongest hope for their happiness in the future. It seems to me so +unnatural to make a loveless marriage. I can't understand a woman's +doing it. Nesbit is going to Palestine and the East. He is miserably +changed; his hair is beginning to streak with gray at the temples +already, and the lines about his mouth are getting hard. It makes me +miserable to think about his life and his future. I can't help feeling +that he has had hard measure meted out to him all around. It is cruel +to touch happiness but never grasp it. I know what you all think about +the affair, Berkeley, but I'm so wrought up about poor Nesbit, I must +and _will_ speak. He ought not to be made to suffer so; it would be +far kinder to take a pistol and kill him at once. You don't think +about _him_ at all--and you should. I know that I'm just a silly +little thing, and that my opinions don't amount to much, but I must say +that I think you are wrong about this matter. A human soul is worth +more than a scruple, be the scruple ever so noble, and I believe the +Heavenly Father thinks so too. If you, who are strong and +large-minded, will put prejudice aside and think the matter out fairly, +you will be _obliged_ to see that Pocahontas is doing wrong. She is +killing herself, and she is killing him, and you ought not to let her +do it. You know your influence over her--I believe it is you and your +mother--the dread of disappointing you, or lowering herself in your +estimation, or something of that sort, that holds her back. Don't do +it any longer, Berkeley. Be generous and noble and large-hearted, like +God means us all to be toward each other. It is awful to be so hard. +Excess of righteousness must be sinful--almost as sinful as lack of +righteousness. There, I've said it all and shocked you, but I can't +help that. Nesbit's face haunts me so that I can't rid myself of it, +sleeping or waking. I am all the time picturing terrible +possibilities. Think of all that Nesbit has had to endure. Think of +how that selfish woman wrecked his past, and ask yourself if there is +any justice--not mercy--bare justice, in letting her wreck his future, +now that the child's death has severed the last link that bound them +together. Has _any thing_ been spared Nesbit? Has not his heart been +wrung again and again? Put yourself in his place, Berkeley, and +acknowledge that after so much tempest, he is entitled to _some_ +sunshine, How _can_ Pocahontas stand it? Could _I_, if it were _you_? +Could I endure to see you suffer? Do you think that if _you_ were in +Nesbit's place I would not come to you, and put my arms round you, and +draw your head to my bosom and whisper--'Dear love, if to all this +bitterness I can bring one single drop of sweet, take it freely, fully +from my lips and from my love?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Berkeley Mason went on to New York in ample time to meet the incoming +Cunarder. His sister accompanied him, and as it was her first visit to +the Empire City, Mason arranged to have nearly a week for lionizing +before the arrival of the travelers. Percival was allowed to come from +Hoboken and join the party, in order that his mother's eyes might be +gladdened by the sight of him the instant she should land. + +At the last moment, General Smith was prevented from joining his family +in Paris according to his original intention, and having old-fashioned +notions relative to the helplessness of ladies, and no sort of +confidence in Blanche's ability to distinguish herself as her mother's +courier and protector, he cabled privately to Nesbit Thorne, requesting +him to defer his Eastern journey for a month, and escort his aunt and +cousin home. Thorne changed his plans readily enough. He only +contemplated prolonged travel as an expedient to fill the empty days, +and if he could be of service to his relatives, held himself quite at +their disposal. + +Pocahontas was ignorant of this change of programme, or it is certain +that she would have remained in Virginia. Her feelings toward Thorne +had undergone no change, but, after the long struggle, there had come +to her a quiescence that was almost peace. So worn and tempest-tossed +had been her mind, that she clung to even this semblance of rest, and +would hardly yet have risked the re-opening of the battle, which a +meeting with Thorne would be sure to inaugurate. + +She was glad to see her old friend General Smith again, for between the +two existed a hearty affection, and more than glad to see Percival. +That young gentleman's joy at being released from the thralldom of +school, coupled with the exhilaration of seeing his friends, and the +prospect of a speedy reunion with his mother and Blanche, appeared to +well-nigh craze him. It certainly required unusual vents for its +exuberance--such as standing on his head in the elevator, promenading +the halls on his hands, and turning "cart-wheels" down the passages, +accomplishments acquired with labor and pain from his colored confreres +in the South. + +It is an interesting thing to await, on the wharf of a large city, the +incoming of a great steamer. The feeling of expectation in the air is +exhilarating, the bustle, hurry and excitement are contagious; +involuntarily one straightens up, and grows alert, every sense on the +_qui vive_, eyes observant, intelligence active, memory garnering +impressions. Note the variety of expression in the faces of the +waiting crowd--the eager longing, the restless expectation of some; the +listless inactivity, indifference, or idle curiosity of others. Stand +aside, if you have no business here, no personal interest in the event +about to happen, and watch your fellow-men for your own amusement and +profit. Many a glimpse of domestic history, many a peep into complex +human nature will be vouchsafed you, and if the gift of fancy be yours, +you can piece out many a story. See; the throbbing monster has reached +her resting place, her fires may subside, her heart may cease its +regular pulsations, her machinery may lapse into well-earned rest, +given over to polishing and oil and flannel rags. The bridge is down, +the waiting crowds rush together, the wharf crowd merging into the deck +crowd, and both pouring landward again in an eager flood. There are +embraces, kisses, congratulations, tears, a continuous stream of +questions and reply, and a never-ending reference to luggage. + +There they stand, a little group apart, close beside the railing, with +hands outstretched and eyes alight; and amid the bustle and confusion, +the embraces and hand-clasping, the collection of hand-traps, and +inquiries about checks, no one had time to notice that, at sight of +each other, two faces paled, or that two hands as they met were cold +and tremulous. + +In a marvelously short time after landing, the party were packed into +carriages, and whirled away to their hotel, leaving their heavy luggage +in the jaws of the custom-house to be rescued later by the general and +Berkeley. As they left the wharf, Pocahontas noticed another steamer +forging slowly in, and preparing to occupy the berth next that of the +Cunarder. + +A couple of hours after the arrival of the European travelers at the +St. Andrew's Hotel, a squarely-built young man of medium height, with a +handsome, bronzed face, and heavy, brown mustache, sprung lightly up +the steps of the hotel and passed into the clerk's office. Here he +ordered a room and delivered his valise and umbrella to a porter, +explaining that he should probably remain several days. Then he turned +to the book, pushed toward him by the clerk, to register his name. + +"You are late, sir," remarked that functionary, affably; not that he +felt interest in the matter, but because to converse was his nature. + +"Late, for what?" inquired the gentleman, without glancing up. + +"For nothing, in particular," replied the clerk. "I only made the +remark because the other Cunard passengers got in an hour ago." + +"I didn't come by the Cunarder. I'm from down South," responded the +bronzed man. "I saw her discharging as we came in." + +Then he ran his eye over the names above his own on the page of the +register. There were only three--Mrs. General Smith, Miss Smith, +Nesbit Thorne. No one he knew, so he slapped together the covers of +the book, and pushed it from him; procured a light for his cigar, +pocketed this key of his room, and sauntered out to have a look at the +city, and possibly to drop in at one of the theaters later on. + +The clerk, in idle curiosity, pulled the register toward him, opened +it, and glanced at the name; it was the fourth from the top, just under +Nesbit Thorne's--James Dabney Byrd, Mexico. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +No; Blanche was not a clever woman; that could not be claimed for her; +but her essential elements were womanly. Pain, grief, distress of any +sort woke in her heart a longing to give help and comfort. + +Since Norma's marriage, Blanche had drawn much nearer to her cousin. +She had always been fond of him in an abstract way, and had felt a +surface sorrow, not unmingled with aesthetic interest, in the dramatic +incidents of his life. She had lived in the same house with him, had +associated with him daily, had taken his hand, had kissed him; but she +had never _known_ him. She had never gauged his nature with the +understanding born of sympathy, never seen the real man. Now it was +otherwise. Association with larger, simpler natures had developed the +latent capabilities of her own, and the presence of love had made her +more observant, more responsive. + +Her enlarged sympathies made her yearn over Thorne; her happiness made +her long earnestly to help him. She cast about in her mind what she +should do. She knew the strength of Berkeley's prejudices, and that +his influence with his sister had been--and still was--silently but +strenuously exerted to hold her back from a course from which, as +Blanche suspected, his feelings, more than his conscience, revolted. + +Blanche, differently reared, could not see the matter from the Mason +standpoint at all. To her, the past was past; to be deplored, of +course, but not to be allowed to cast a baleful shadow on the future. +That, to Blanche, was morbid; she could see no sense in drawing +conscientiousness to a point and impaling her own heart, and, worse, +other hearts thereon. Blanche's creed was simple--people committed +faults, made blunders, sinned, suffered; atoned the sin by the +suffering, and should then be kissed and forgiven. + +She talked to Berkeley in her gentle, persuasive way (she had not +courage yet to talk to Pocahontas) and exerted all her influence in +Thorne's behalf; but she speedily discovered that she made little +headway; that while Berkeley listened, he did not assent; that he put +down her efforts; mainly, to personal attachment to her cousin, and was +therefore inclined to rule out her testimony. She needed help; +pressure must be brought to bear which had no connection with Thorne; +some one from the old life must speak, some one who shared the +prejudices, and was big enough and generous enough to set them aside +and judge of the affair from an unbiased, impersonal standpoint. + +When this idea presented itself, her mind turned instantly to Jim. +Here was a man from the old life, a man reared as they had been reared, +a man in no way connected with Thorne. Jim could help her, if he +would, and somehow, Blanche felt assured that he would. + +Jim had discovered their presence in the hotel very speedily and had +joined the party, glad, with an earnest gladness, to see his old +friends again, glad also to meet these new friends who had become +associated with the old ones. Blanche had been attracted by him, as +women, children, and dumb animals always were attracted by him; he was +strong, and yet very gentle. + +She determined to speak to him, to make him understand the position, +and to entreat him to exert his influence with Berkeley, and through +Berkeley, with Pocahontas, to set this matter straight. She did not +know that she was about to do a cruel thing; was about to stretch a +soul on the rack and turn the screws. That fine reserve which infolded +the Masons like a veil precluded gossiping about themselves or their +affairs. Blanche had never heard of Jim as the lover of Pocahontas--or +if she had, it had been in an outside, intangible way that had made no +impression on her. + +Possessed by her idea, and intent on securing an opportunity for +uninterrupted conversation, she asked Jim to take a walk with her. She +had some calls to make, she said, and they would walk through the park. +At this season the park was very beautiful, and she should like to show +it to him; New Yorkers were very proud of it. Blanche knew that she +was doing an unconventional thing; but she had observed, rather +wonderingly, the frank helpfulness with which Southerners would +identify themselves with each others' affairs, and she felt sure that +in speaking to Jim she ran little risk of rebuff. Jim had known the +Masons always, was of their blood; to put his shoulder to their wheel +would seem to him the right, and natural thing to do. Therefore +Blanche made her request with confidence, and Jim, who had never in his +life questioned a woman's right to his time and attention, went with +her willingly. + +They sauntered about for a time and Jim admired all the beauties that +were pointed out to him, and showed his country training by pointing +out in his turn, subtler beauties which escaped her; the delicate +shading of bark and leaf-bud, the blending of the colors of the soil, +the way the shadows fell, the thousand and one things an artist, or a +man reared in the woods and fields, is quick to see, if he has eyes in +his head. He pointed out to her a nest a pair of birds were building, +and called her attention to a tiny squirrel, with a plume-like tail, +jumping about among the branches overhead. He told her stories of the +tropics, too, and of the strange picturesque life in the land of the +Montezumas, and made himself pleasant in a cheery, companionable way +that was very winning. He was pleased with Blanche, and thought that +his old friend had done well for himself in securing the love of the +sweet-faced maiden at his side. He liked talking to her, and walking +beside her in the sunshine; he decided that "Berke was a deuced lucky +fellow, and had fallen on his feet," and he was glad of it. + +After awhile they turned into an unfrequented walk, and Blanche seized +her opportunity. She made Jim sit down on a bench under an old elm +tree and seated herself beside him. Then, insensibly and deftly, she +turned the talk to Virginia. She spoke of his old home, and praised +its beauty, and told him how a love for it had grown up in her heart, +although she was a stranger; she spoke of the cordial, friendly people, +and of the kindness they had extended to her family; of Warner, his +illness, death, and burial beside poor Temple Mason. Then she glided +on to Pocahontas, and spoke of her friend with enthusiasm, almost with +reverence; then, seeing that his interest was aroused, she told him as +simply and concisely as she could the story of her cousin's love for +Pocahontas, and the position in which the affair now stood. + +"I know that she loves him," Blanche said quietly, "loves him as he +loves her, and that she is breaking her own heart, as well as his, by +this hesitation. It seems to me so wrong. What is a scruple compared +to the happiness of a life? The child is dead, all connection between +Nesbit and that heartless woman is severed forever. She is no more to +him than she is to you, or to Berkeley. I think that Pocahontas would +give way, but for Berkeley, for the influences of her old life. I +think some one ought to speak to Berkeley, to make him see how wrong he +is, how hard, how almost cruel. I have spoken, but I'm of Nesbit's +blood, on Nesbit's side, and my words haven't the weight that words +would have coming from a person who is outside of it all, and yet who +belongs _to them_. If YOU would speak, Mr. Byrd, I think it would do +good. Berkeley would listen to you, and would come to look at this +matter in its true light. Pocahontas is breaking her heart, and +Nesbit's heart, and she ought not to be let do it." There were tears +in Blanche's eyes and in her voice as she spoke, and she laid one small +hand on Jim's arm appealingly. + +Jim never moved; he sat like a man carved out of stone and listened. +He knew that Pocahontas had never loved _him_, as he had wanted her to +love him; but the knowledge that her love was given to another man, was +bitter. He said no word, only listened with a jealous hatred of the +man, who had supplanted him, growing in his breast. + +Blanche looked at him with tearful eyes and quivering lips; his gaze +was on the ground; his face wore, to her, an absent, almost apathetic +look. She was disappointed. She had expected, she did not know +exactly _what_, but certainly more sympathy, more response. She +thought that his heart must be less noble than his face, and she +regretted having given him her confidence and solicited his aid. When +they got back to the avenue, she released him from further attendance a +trifle coldly. She would make her calls alone, she said, it might be +irksome to him, probably he had other engagements. He had been very +good to sacrifice so much of his time to her; she would not detain him +longer. + +Jim went back to the path and sat down again, not noticing her change +of manner, and only conscious of the relief of being free from the +necessity of talking commonplace, of being left to think this matter +out alone. He thought vaguely that she was a kind, considerate woman +and then she passed out of his mind. + +The first feeling with which he grappled was wonder; a strange thing +had happened. A few short months ago these people had been unknown to +him; were, as far as his life had been concerned, non-existent. And +now! Land, home, friends, love, all things that had been his, were +theirs! His place knew him no more; these strangers filled it. It was +a strange thing, a cruel thing. + +Pocahontas had been glad to see him again, but in her pleasure there +had been preoccupation; he had felt it; it was explained now. He knew +that she had never loved him, but the possibility of her loving another +man had never come home to him before. He tried to steady himself and +realize it; it ate into his heart like corroding acid. Perhaps it was +not true; there might be some mistake; then his heart told him that it +was true; that there was no mistake. She loved this man, this +stranger, of whose existence she had been ignorant that evening when +she had said farewell to _him_ under the old willows beside the river. +She had been tender and pitiful then; she had laid her soft lips +against his hand, had given him a flower from her breast. He moved his +hand, and, with the fingers of the other hand, touched the spot which +her lips had pressed; the flower, faded and scentless, lay, folded with +a girlish note or two she had written him, in the inside pocket of his +vest. + +The shadows shifted as the wind swayed the branches; the sound of +women's voices came from behind a clump of evergreens; they were raised +in surprise or excitement, and sounded shrill and jarring. In the +distance a nurse pushed a basket-carriage carelessly; she was talking +to a workman who slouched beside her, and the child was crying. Two +sparrows near at hand, quarreled and fought over a bit of string. + +His anger burned against Thorne. He could see no good in his rival; no +tragedy, no pathos, in the situation. Had his life gone +wrong?--Doubtless the fault had been his. Did he suffer? Jim felt a +brute joy in the knowledge of his pain. + +What was that the young lady had said? Thorne had been divorced--the +woman who had been his wife lived--there were prejudices; he knew them +all; a barrier existed; his heart leaped. Here was hope, here was +vengeance. + +A cloud passed over the sun, eclipsing its brightness; a chill was on +the face of nature; a dead twig, broken by the squirrel in his gambols, +fell at his feet. + +He had been asked to speak, to exert his influence, to smooth the path +for his rival. He would _not_ speak; why should he speak? Was it any +business of his? Nay; was it not rather his duty to be silent, or to +throw such influence as he possessed into the other scale? Should he +aid to bring about a thing which he had been taught to regard with +aversion? Was it not his duty as a man, as a Christian, to _increase_ +the prejudice, to build higher the barrier? Was it not better that +Thorne should suffer, that Pocahontas should suffer, as he himself was +suffering, than that wrong should be done? + +The devil is never subtler than when he assumes the garb of priest. + +And if he did not speak--more, if he should solidify, by every means in +his power, this barrier of prejudice into a wall of principle, which +should separate these two forever, what might not be the result? Jim's +strong frame shook like a leaf. His abnormally-excited imagination +leaped forward and constructed possibilities that thrilled him. The +spot on his hand that her lips had touched, burned. + +A little girl came down the walk, trundling a hoop; it struck against +Jim's foot and fell over. The helpful instinct that was in him made +him stoop and lift it for her; the child, a tiny thing, pushed back her +curls and looked up at him with grave, wide-open eyes; suddenly her +face dimpled; a smile like sunshine broke over it, and she raised her +sweet lips to his, to kiss her thanks. + +What had happened? A child's look, a child's kiss; it was a strange +thing. He raised his head and glanced around, passing his hand over +his brow like a man aroused from a delirium of dreams. Forces foreign +to his nature had been at work. He could not understand it--or himself. + +Words came back to him out of his past--his own words--"a man must hold +up his own weight," and other words, "a man must help with his strength +a woman's weakness." He thought of his love with pity, with remorse. +He had never failed her, never put himself first, till now. What was +this thing he had thought of doing? + +Jim stood erect and pulled himself together, lifting his head and +squaring his shoulders as a man does who is about to face an issue +fairly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Pocahontas was alone. The party had dispersed, one here, one there, +about their own concerns, filled with their own interests. They had +invited her to accompany them, even urged it; but she would not; she +was tired, she said, and would rest; but there was no rest for her. + +The crisis of her life had come, and she was trying to face it. +Heretofore the fight had been unequal; the past had had the advantage +of sun and wind and field, the old influences had been potent because +they were present, had never been broken. Now she was in a measure +removed from them; the forces faced each other on neutral ground, the +final conflict was at hand. + +What should she do? How should she decide? She was torn and swayed by +the conflict of emotions within her; the old fight was renewed with +added fierceness. Her heart yearned over Thorne, her love rose up and +upbraided her for hardness. He was so changed, he had suffered so, his +hair was growing gray, hard lines were deepening about his mouth, and +to his eyes had come an expression that wrung her heart--a cynical +hopelessness, a sullen gloom. Was this her work? Was she shutting out +hope from a life, thus making a screen of a scruple to keep sunlight +from a soul? + +Unconsciously she was assuming the responsibility which he had thrust +upon her--was fitting the burden to her shoulders. She did not analyze +the position; did not see that he had been ruthless; that he had no +right to use such a weapon against her. She only saw that he suffered, +that he needed her, that she loved him. + +What did it matter about herself? Her scruple might die--and if it +should not, she was strong enough to hold it down, to keep her foot on +its breast. Was her love so weak that it should shrink from pain? + +If only the scruple would die! If only the old influences would lose +their hold; if only she could see this thing as the world saw it. Was +she made different from others, that her life should be molded on other +lines than _their_ lives? God, above! _Why_ should she suffer, and +make Thorne suffer? + +Her mother, Berkeley, the dead brother whom she had exalted into a +hero, the memory of the brave men and noble women from whom she had +sprung, the old traditions, the old associations rose, in her excited +fancy, and arrayed themselves on one side. Against them in serried +ranks came compassion, all the impulses of true womanhood toward +self-sacrifice and love. + +The loneliness of the crowded hotel oppressed her; the consciousness of +the life that environed but did not touch her, gave birth to a yearning +to get away from it all--out into the sunshine and the sweet air, and +the warmth and comfort of nature. If she could get away into some +still, leafy place, she could think. + +Hastily arraying herself, she left her chamber and descended the broad +stairway. She passed through the hall, and out into the sunshine of +the busy street; and Jim, who, unseen by her, was standing in the +clerk's office, turned and looked after her. A troubled expression, +like the shadow of a cloud, passed over his face, and he followed her +silently. + +In the street it was better. There were people, little children, a +sense of life, a sense of humanity, and over all, around all, the warm +sunlight. Comfort and help abounded. A woman, weighed down with a +heavy burden, paused, bewildered, in the middle of a crossing--a man +helped her; a child stood crying on a doorstep--a larger child soothed +it; an ownerless dog looked pitifully into a woman's face--she stooped +and stroked its head with her ungloved hand. The longing for the +isolation of nature slowly gave place to a recognition of the community +of nature. + +A quiet street branched off from the crowded thoroughfare. Pocahontas +turned into it and walked on. The roar of traffic deadened as she left +it further and further behind; the passers became fewer. It was the +forenoon and the people were at work; the houses rose tall on either +hand; the street was still and almost deserted. + +A man passed with a barrow of flowers--roses, geraniums, jasmin; their +breath made the air fragrant. In a stately old church near by some one +was playing; a solemn, measured movement. Pocahontas turned aside and +entered. The place was still and hushed; the light dim and beautiful +with color; on the altar, tapers burned before the mother and child; +everywhere there was a faint odor of incense. + +Pocahontas wandered softly here and there, soothed by the peace, +comforted by the music. On one side there was a small chapel, built by +piety in memory of death. Pocahontas entered it. Here, too, lights +burned upon the altar, shedding a soft, golden radiance that was caught +and reflected by the silver candlesticks and the gold and crystal of +the vases. On the steps of the altar was a great basket of roses; and +through a memorial window streamed the sunlight, casting on the +tesselated pavement a royal wealth of color, blue and gold and crimson; +against the dark walls marble tablets gleamed whitely. Near one of +them, a tiny shield, a man stood with his head bent and his shoulder +resting against a carved oak column--Nesbit Thorne, and the tablet bore +the inscription: "Allen Thorne, obiit Jan. 14th, 18--, aetat 4 years." + +Pocahontas drew back, her breath coming in short gasps; the movement of +the music quickened, grew stronger, fiercer, with a crash of cords. +Thorne did not move; his head was bent, his profile toward her; about +his pose, his whole form, was a look of desolation. His face was +stern, its outlines sharp, its expression that of a man who had had +hard measure meted out to him, and who knew it, and mutinied against +the decree. He did not see her, he was not conscious of her presence, +and the knowledge that it was so, sent a pang through her heart. A +wave of pity swept over her; an impulse struggled into life, to go to +him, to take his hand in hers, to press close to his side, to fill the +void of his future with her love. What held her back? Was it pride? +Why could not she go to him? His unconsciousness of her presence held +her aloof--made her afraid with a strange, new fear. + +Footsteps neared, echoing strangely; the music had sunk to a minor +cadence which seemed to beat the measure of their advance. The eyes of +the woman were filled with a strained expectancy. Into the waiting +place, framed by the central arch, came the figure of a man--strongly +built, of noble air, of familiar presence. Eyes brave and true and +faithful met hers gravely, a hand was outstretched toward her. + +Pocahontas shivered, and her heart beat with heavy, muffled strokes. +The counter influences of her life were drawing to the death struggle. +Thorne turned; his eyes were upon her; he advanced slowly. + +Jim came straight to where she stood and took her hands in his; his +face was pale and drawn, as the face of a man who has passed through +the white heat of suffering. His hands were cold, and trembled a +little as they closed on hers; he tried to speak, but his lips were dry +and his voice inaudible. + +"Sweetheart," he said at length, using the tender old word +unconsciously, and speaking brokenly, "I asked you once to let the +thought of me come--sometimes--when life should be hard upon you; to +let the influence, of my love stir sometimes in your memory. That +would be wrong now--worse; it would be selfish and unmanly. A man has +no right to cast his shadow on a woman's life when it has passed into +the keeping of another man." His voice grew husky, his lips quivered, +but he went bravely on. "I know your story--Berkeley has told me--the +young lady has spoken--I take back the request. I'd rather all thought +of me should be banished from you in this world and in the next, than +that it should make a breach, even in the outworks of your life, to let +in trouble to you." + +He paused abruptly; through the strong frame ran a shudder, like the +recoil from pain; but the man's will was firm, his purpose steadfast. +All of her life he had cared for her, been tender with her; shielding +her from trouble, or grief, or blame, as far as in him lay, and, though +his heart should break, he would not fail her now. Slowly he spoke +again. + +"Child," he said, gently, "if I've ever said a word that hurts you, +forget it, put it from you. I did not understand then; I do _now_--and +I'd give my right hand to recall it. What you do has always been right +in my eyes--_must_ always be right. I can never----" his voice failed +him; something rose in his throat and choked utterance; he bent his +head until his lips touched the hands he held, and then turned quietly +away. + +Pocahontas did not move; she scarcely breathed. The spell of Jim's +magnanimity held her, made her realize, at last, the grandeur, the +immensity of love. Her soul was awed. Thought followed thought +through her brain; love in its sublimity was bared to her gaze; self +fell away--burned as dross in the fire of suffering; to guide herself +was not enough; she must aid and comfort others. If hands were +outstretched in anguish, she must clasp them; if a heart cried to her +in desolation, she had no right to turn aside. Was she so pure, so +clean, so righteous, that contact with another soul--one that had known +passions and sorrows of which she was, of which she _must_ be, +ignorant--should soil her? If so, her righteousness was a poor thing, +her cleanness, that of the outside of the cup and platter, her purity, +that of unquarried marble. + +Thorne drew nearer; she raised her head; their eyes met; he extended +his hands with a gesture not to be denied. + +With a smile of indescribable graciousness, a tenderness, a royalty of +giving, she made a movement forward and laid her hands in his. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +Thorne did not accompany the party to Virginia, although it was tacitly +understood that he should follow in time for Blanche's wedding, which +would take place in June. Pocahontas wished it so arranged, and +Thorne, feeling that his love had come to him, as through fire, was +anxious to order all things according to her wishes. He was very +quiet, grave, and self-contained; his old buoyancy, his old lightness +had passed away forever. The whirl and lash of a hurricane leave +traces which not even time can efface. A man does not come through +fire unscathed--he is marred, or purified; he is never the same. In +Thorne, already, faintly stirred nature's grand impulse of growth, of +pressing upward toward the light. He strove to be patient, tender, +considerate, to take his happiness, not as reward for what he was, but +as earnest of what he might become. + +Jim remained in New York also. He would go back to his work, he said, +it would be better so. He had come north on business for his company, +and when that should be completed he would return to Mexico. He would +not go to Virginia; he did not want to see strangers in the old home; +he would write to his sisters and explain; no one need trouble about +him; he would manage well enough. + +Before they separated, Jim had a long talk with Berkeley, and in the +course of it the poor fellow completed his victory over self. He spoke +generously of Thorne. + +"It's a big subject, Berkeley," he said, in conclusion, "and I don't +see that you or I have any call to pass judgment on it, or to lay down +arbitrary lines, saying _this_ is righteous, _that_ is unrighteous. We +may have our own thoughts about the matter--we _must_ have, but we've +no right to lop or stretch other people to fit them. Princess is a +pure woman, a noble woman, better, a thousand-fold, than you or me or +any other man that breathes. From her standpoint, what she does is +right, and, whether we differ with her or not, we are bound to believe +that she has weighed the matter and made her choke in all honor and +truth. And, Berke, listen to me! You are powerless to alter any +thing, and it's a man's part to face the inevitable and make the best +of it. You can't better things, but you can make them worse. Don't +alienate your sister. You are the nearest man of her blood, and, as +such, you have influence with her; don't throw it away. If you are +cold, hard, and unloving to her now, you'll set up a barrier between +you that you'll find it hard to level. Never let her turn from you, +Berke. Stand by her always, old friend." + +Poor Jim! He could not as yet disassociate the old from the new. To +him it still seemed as though Berkeley, and, in a measure, he himself +were responsible for her life; must take care and thought for her +future. Love and habit form bonds that thought does not readily burst +asunder. + +Berkeley was good to his sister--influenced partly by Blanche, partly +by Jim, but most of all by his strong affection for Pocahontas herself. +He drew her to his breast and rested his cheek against her hair a +moment, and kissed her tenderly, and the brother and sister understood +each other without a spoken word. + +He could not bring himself to be cordial to Thorne all at once, but he +loyally tried to do his best, and Thorne was big enough to see and +appreciate the effort. There might come a time when the men would be +friends. + +Poor Mrs. Mason! Her daughter's engagement was a shock, almost a blow +to her, and she could not reconcile herself to it at first. The +foundations seemed to be slipping from under her feet, the supports in +which she trusted, to be falling away. She was a just as well as a +loving woman, and she knew that the presence of a new and powerful love +brings new responsibilities and a new outlook on life. She faithfully +tried to put herself in her daughter's place and to judge of the affair +from Pocahontas's standpoint; but the effort was painful to her, and +the result not always what she could wish. She recognized, the love +being admitted, that Thorne had claims which must be allowed; but she +felt it hard that such claims should exist, and her recognition of them +was not sufficiently full and generous to make her feel at one with +herself. Old minds adapt themselves to new conditions slowly. + +However, mother-love is limitless, and, through all, her impulse was to +hold to her child, to do nothing, to say nothing which would wound or +alienate her. And for the rest--there was no need of haste; she could +keep these things and "ponder them in her heart." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS*** + + +******* This file should be named 17545.txt or 17545.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/5/4/17545 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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